A quick note, this episode contains mention of suicide. Please listen with caution and care. On the night of February twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, a mother and her two children were asleep in their home outside of Midland, Texas. While they slept, a fire broke out in the house. Driving home from work, Butch Martin saw the flames from the road as they approached.
We get up on the top of the hill and I see a big black cloud of smokes. That's man that looks like my house man. And then when we got closer, I saw that it was my house.
Butch's girlfriend, Marsha Pool, and their two children, Brady and Kristen, died in the fire, and the subsequent investigation led an innocent man to be condemned to prison for life.
You know, part of me says, I don't care what no way he thinks. But I do care. You know, all is the truth should be not the truth. I am Booch Martin. I've been in cars for him since August ninety nine.
From Love of for Good This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Butch Martin Garland Leon Martin, who goes by Butch was born in Odessa, Texas, on September fifteenth, nineteen sixty two, to Buddy and Nancy Martin. Butch was one of five children. When he was young, family moved to nearby Midland, Texas, where he and his siblings were raised.
That's right. We lived out on a farm off seventeen eighty eight head every top animal you can think of, you know, pigs, goats, sheep, turkeys, geese, peacock. That's great.
Butch rode horses and motorcycles and loved to drag race.
He's the wildest of a bunch, that's for sure.
This is Butch's little sister, Heather.
Everybody loved him, everybody. I mean, he was very outgoing. He was the type to give his shirt off his back for anybody. He would help anybody in need.
And not only that.
He's funny. He's hilarious, definitely. I mean, he has his moments and he can be serious, but for the most part, he's pretty funny and he likes to make people laugh.
In fact, his offbeat sense of humor is the source of one of Heather's favorite memories of Butch.
He was in a motorcocle accident and he broke both of his legs, so he was in a wheelchair for a while. So his thing was, you know, he was going to learn to ride wheelies in his wheelchair. Well, you know, he's cruising along showing off, you know, doing his little wheelies and stuff. He ended up tipping over backwards and he couldn't get up because his legs weren't broke.
And I was laughing at him because he was trying to show off, and then we both started laughing, and I couldn't get him up because we're both laughing so hard.
He makes light of every situation.
After Butch graduated high school, he took a job in the oil field. He had taken vocational welding classes in school and made a good living as a welder. But then the oil industry lost traction.
I took off and a friend of mine had a recovery company that he repossessed vehicles and everything, everything from canning, copiers, a baby grand piano, We reported everything.
Butch was mobile, traveling all over Texas doing the repossession work and making good money on it. He says he was living the life. It was during this time that Butch also got married and had a son, Parker Chase.
We were all married like three years. I really didn't even want to marry or I told my homeway the way, you know, we need to just keep driving, you know, and he's going, I'm stupid, you're going back.
Needless to say that marriage didn't work out. Butch continued working and he would also go out partying. He says he was a ladies man and eventually he met the one. So how did you meet Marcia?
Well, actually, my buddies took me to a derby where, you know, five gangcocks roosters, and it was a little get together. There After it got dark and she was sitting on a store in the kitchen.
Marcia Pool was twenty years old. She had just had her son, Brady, who was with her at the gathering.
And I saw that she was drinking tequila.
Butch asked Marcia for a tequila shot, but instead she handed him her baby son to Holt, and Butch was smitten.
Yeah. I knew right there, and I said in love with her. Man. She was cool man, totally cool.
After that, Butch and Marsha were inseparable. Despite the fact that Butch was twelve years older, it didn't matter to them. They wanted to have a life together and they did.
We did everything together with I took her to a bunch of concerts and she was like a grooby, little hippie chick. We were so great together.
Eventually, Butch and Marsha moved in together. Butch was over the moon happy when he found out they were going to have a kid. By that point, Butch was also a father figure to Marcia's son, Brady, whom he adored, and Brady worshiped him too.
Bady would be on the front porch every day waiting on me. I I'll go with you. I'm go on, go on go, And if I wasn't paying attention, he would try to climb the fence to get to me. You know, I looked over every one time and he was hanging upside down by his boodhist booty got caught and he's looking at me. But he ain't screaming or nothing. I'm like.
In June of nineteen ninety six, Butch and Marcia's daughter, Kristin Ray was born, and Butch really wanted to make the family official with Marcia.
I kept begging her to marryment. She said no, I'm just done things so we never got married. That was all my only love that I've ever been here. I loved him more than anything or ever ever will again ever.
On February twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, Butch and Marsha were at home when he got a call from his friend Stacy, who had a construction business. He said he knew a guy who wanted a fence put up and asked Butch to come along and help measure for it.
And about twenty minutes later our horn home. He lived right down the street. I said, Hey, I'm leaving. I'll be back in a couple hours. She said, oh, I love you. I love you too, and that that's where I live. And we went stopped.
Bought beard from there, they drove to the job site.
Of course, we had some beer in the truck and everything. But we went in back yard and measured where he was putting fences.
It was a normal relaxing evening. Butch out with a friend and Marsha and the kids asleep at home. But as Butch and his friend were headed back to his house, he saw a highway patrol car pass them at top speed, its lights flashing.
We get up on the top of the Shiel and I see a big black cloud of smoke, and you can tell that it's like a plastic like tires something like that. Mainly, you know, it's just so dark, you know, a grass fire. It is dark like that. That's man, that looks like my house man. And then when we got closer, I saw that it was my.
House and the house was engulfed in flames.
And before we got to the house, a bell and I jumped out of the dror and started yelling, oh where marshalled the kids? And I ran right up in there, Uh, solid wall smoked. I tried to up open the front door. I couldn't get the door. Pushed boots from the fucking door.
Butch couldn't get in the house and he couldn't breathe. But he was desperate to save his family.
So I ran back out of smoke. I got some married I ran right back in and I couldn't get in the fuck out. Uh you know, it was fully engulfed anyway, but you know I ran the third time I came out and they tackled me and I han't copy to it. Both both top cars.
Butch was frantic and the police had handcuffed him to a car to keep him from running into the burning house to save his family. They eventually got him in a car and him down the street to a friend's house to keep him out of danger, but determined to get to Marsha and the kids. Butch knocked his friend down and took off, running two miles back to his house.
And I ran the whole way back, and when I came around the corner, Uh, there was people ever where my mom and dad were there. Oh, there's people ever were man.
Butch was instantly tackled again by the sheriff so he wouldn't run into the fire.
He got on top of me. I was knee and my neck, you know, the typical police hold, and I couldn't breathe. My dad came up and he told me it's gonna be all right. I said, it's not gonna be right. I'll never see her again.
This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making a positive difference in the lives of its employees and in the communities where they work and live. In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform. The AIG pro Bono program provides free legal services and
other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Busch was taken to a hospital in nearby San Angelo, his hands severely burned. By this point, it was clear his entire world, twenty four year old Marsha, three year old Brady, and eighteen month old Kristen, had died in the fire. He was the only one in their family left. Deeply depressed, Butch was transferred to a psychiatric hospital while he recovered from his burns. About a week into his stay, the police came to visit him.
I had lost everything. Well. They came into where I had left. I had the clothes I had on. I was like, what and I have washed lot. Have you watched the season? I said, yeah, what is wrong at you know?
Butch didn't know why the police needed the clothes he had worn that day, but he gave them to the officers anyway. The last of everything Butch owned and loved was gone. Finally, when Butch was well enough, he was taken to the remains of his house to look for anything unusual. Sergeant Terry Lowe from the Sheriff's department walked him through the wreckage.
So we'll go through all the rooms. And I noticed there's some like fluorescent orange spray paint by Christian's crib. And I asked him, is that where Christin was? That's where her crib was, right there in that corner right there, I say, is that where you found her body? And he said is.
Marcia's body had been found lying against the door that Butch had been trying to get into that night. Little Brady was found on the floor nearby, and.
They say that Brady had got off the couch and went to the love seat to I guess probably a wake as my mom and she she she stood up into a thermal layer or something like that and sends her runs. Uh.
They imagining how they're deaths played out was horrific for Butch. During the initial investigation, pathologist doctor David Hobblett said they died of smoke inhalation and that they were alive when the fire started. But then, in an unusual turn of events, the state, wanting to argue that this was actually a homicide, had all three bodies exhumed. Forensic anthropologists doctor Harold gil King examined them. Gil King came to a different conclusion
than the pathologist had. He said that three year old Brady had blunt forced injuries to his head and that the injuries were inflicted prior to his death, further bolstering the state's theory. The fire investigator also said he found evidence of intentionally poured accelerants, suggesting someone started the fire on purpose. Almost two months after the fire, Butch was arrested for arson and the murder of his family. He
was indicted on April fifteenth, nineteen ninety eight. Not only was Butch devastated by the charges, but also by the fact that the sheriff who arrested him, Terry Lowe, with someone Butch had known for years.
My sister played ball, softball and with his daughter, So everybody knew the sheriff. You know, and you'll have to as the town knows me and knows. There's no way I would ever, and the other half think I'm so crazy that I might have.
Naturally. This put Butch in a dark place. While awaiting trial, he tried to kill himself.
I took two bottles of the ambience and sleeping pills and valians of roaches. I took several bottles of pills and that's when he found me of pump stomach. I'll be there with him dead than Roger Rod now.
Butch went to trial on April fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine. District Attorney Al Shari was the prosecutor. His theory was that Butch knocked out Marcia and Brady, put Kristin in her crib, and then set the fire before leaving with his friend for the evening. He said Butch was angry with Marcia because she was going to leave him with no life or homeowner's insurance. To claim this would have been Butch's only motive. Da Shore called Marcia's mother to
testify and support of this theory. She told the court that Butch and Marcia had a tumultuous relationship, and Butch's friend Stacy, who was with him the night of the fire, also testified that Butch had been acting suspiciously. Something Butch had said as the patrol car flew by them that night along the lines of I hope they're not going to my house was brought up and used as evidence of guilt. Shari said that meant that Butch already knew it was his house.
The entire case is proof of how when you're looking to paint a bull's eye around somebody, you can do it right. If you think that this guy is guilty, then something like I hope that fire truck's not going to my house suddenly takes on a.
Whole new meaning. This is Alison Clayton.
I am the deputy director of the Innosonce Project of Texas and the adjunct professor of the Innocence Clinic at Texas Tech University School of Law.
Allison says, then when Shari called the original pathologist, doctor David Hobblett, to testify, well.
The pathologist gets on the stand and he says, yeah, I found swelling in both the brains of marsh and of Brady. And to me, this swelling indicates blunt force trauma inflicted prior to the time of death. That was out of nowhere for the defense because that's not what the report said.
Remember, in the original report, doctor Hoblett said that he believed they died from smoke inhalation, But now at trial he said something totally different.
At some point in there, the pathologist changed his mind. He changed his opinion his testimony changed to match what the anthropologist was going to say.
The forensic anthropologist, doctor Gil King, testified to finding blunt force trauma after the exhumation.
The anthropologist says, you know, this is the kind of trauma that you could expect to be inflicted from a closed fist at a full arm swing. I mean, just terrible testimony.
And the States fire experts Dale Little and John Corn testified that they believed the fire started in the bedroom from intentionally poured accelerant. This was based on samples from the home that came back positive for two chemicals, norpar and hydroparaferated kerosene. These chemicals were believed at the time to only be present in accelerants used for setting fires. They also said they found what they called poor patterns where the accelerant would have theoretically been I mean.
Back in the nineties and early two thousands, fire investigators would go through a crime scene and they would say, hey, it looks like there was something poured on this floor right here, and then everything burned down to the concrete. So they thought that they could go through and recognize these patterns and concrete of burned structures and say, ah, that's where they had poured accelerant.
But Butch had hired private attorneys Clifford Hardwick and John Cook, and they put on a rigorous defense. Their fire experts refuted the findings of the prosecution. Forensic scientist Doug Byron said it wasn't surprising that those chemicals were found in the home because common ingredients in numerous household products. Their presence does not mean a fire was intentionally set. Carter Roberts, a certified fire investigator, disputed the so called poor patterns.
He maintained that the fire started on the back porch, not in the bedroom, and that a faulty extension cord might have been to blame.
They had a deep freeze out on their back porch and they had plugged in this old time deep freezer with an indoor extension cord that they had run from the back porch through the back bedroom into the kitchen to plug in above the stove, and that was their theory is that that's probably a start of the fire.
Roberts said he believed States expert Dale Little was looking for evidence of arson and disregarded potential fire hazards like the extension cord Butch's defense team also called witnesses who had been with Butch that night. They said they did not smell any un usual odors like lighter fluid or accelerant on Butch or on his clothes. And finally, they had forensic pathologists and medical examiner doctor Lloyd White review
the autopsies and photographs. Doctor White testified that not only was there no indication of blunt force trauma, but that brain swelling was actually common for deaths associated with fire because of carbon monoxide poisoning. Despite all this, it was not enough to convince a jury of reasonable doubt.
But at the end of the day, you have got horrific pictures of burned babies and their mama laying right there at the front door. A terrible case, I mean just a terrible case. And you've got scientific evidence from a pathologist, from a forensic anthropologist, from arson scientists, and of course you know it's very difficult to overcome that.
On April thirtieth, nineteen ninety nine, thirty six year old Butch Martin was convicted of three counts of capital mare. He was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences.
The media made my brother to out to be a monster basically. You know, he's He's done a lot of dumb stuff in his life, but he's not a murderer.
It's definitely one of the hardest things I've ever been through. My brother has missed everything, you know, my I mean everything, and it's just it's not fair.
It is not fair.
They didn't even give him the opportunity.
You know.
It's like it's like they they wanted him guilty right from the from the get go, you know what I mean.
And then before I knew it, he was gone.
After his conviction, Butch was sent to a men's maximum security prison in Texas to spend the rest of his life. It was a tough place with tough prisoners. Butcher remembers a time he got in a bad fight with some guys.
One of them made a comment about, oh, yeah, yeah, the guy had a little barbecue, right. I don't see him in the mountain. I didn't know at the time that he was there, his brotherhood. I'm missing a bunch of tea and you know, and they weren't pools.
It's hard for me to talk to him without crying. And the whole time's going Heather stop, Heather Stop. I can't cry. I can't cry, you know, And it's really sad, you know that he just has to put on this front and be a tough guy all the time. Twenty four to seven. I'm just ready for him to be able to be himself again, you know, because that's not him, That is.
Not him at all.
He is a good, tender hearted man and he deserves to be able to be that man.
While in prison, Butch also lost access to his son, Parker Chase. His ex wife had him sign papers giving up his parental rights.
You know, I haven't talked to him since he was a little kid.
So you don't have a relationship with him.
No, I don't. But I get pictures of him all the time. My sister has him on Facebook.
Butch has never stopped thinking about the life and family he lost in the fire. He says he has nightmares about it all the time.
Every day, every day when I wake up, I go rocky running in the house. Time, let me get the house, you know, every day you when I wake up.
For years, Butch filed appeal after appeal to try to overturn his conviction.
As I would say, we play the waiting game.
This is Butcher's sister, Heather.
Again, we would.
Wait and wait and wait, and then this would get denied or you know, they wouldn't even you know, take years just to read something, just to shut him down, you know, and it was hard, you know, you get your hopes up just to get basically your feet kicked out from underneath you. Especially especially for my brother of course, getting his hopes up thinking he's going to get to come home, and then you know, something else happens.
Eventually, something else did happen, something Butch had been waiting for. Alison Clayton and the Innocent Project of Texas wound up taking on Butch's case in twenty seventeen. Did anything stand out to you about the case immediately?
The use of arson science in the fire debris analysis and the reliance on poor pattern science. I know from studies that were done in the early two thousands and mid two thousands that our understanding of analyzing fire debris has evolved.
First, Allison says that updated fire science affirms what the defense's experts said at trial, that the chemicals found in fire accelerants are also commonly found in homes.
They are in carpet, they're in building adhesive, they're in receipt paper, they're in some clothing, we'll have it on them.
They are just everywhere. And also, of course the poor patterns.
And I knew that poor pattern science had been entirely discredited, especially for these big house fires, and that anytime you see poor pattern, gigantic red flag.
Alison points to the many examples in this case of so called evidence shape shifting to fit the state's narrative, including doctor Hobblett revising his original assessment from death by smoke inhalation to blunt force trauma.
If you think that he's guilty, then all of a sudden, this fire debri analysis intentionally looking for something like everything takes a different cast.
Right back in two thousand and two, before Alison came on, Butch had another legal team working on his case. They had already brought it to the state fire Marshal and a scientific advisory committee for review.
Forensic pathologists, fire experts, fire chemists, all these different people, and they look at the evidence in Butch's cases, and these people understand the advancements that have been made by that time. And the fire marshal comes out and writes an opinion saying that you cannot say that this was an intentionally set fire. He says that the cause of the fire is undetermined, which is a big, big deal.
So when Alison came on the case, she already had this information to work with, and in May of twenty twenty two, she lined up her own experts for a new hearing on the case in front of Judge David g Rogers. Not only that new information had come to light about the original pathologist, doctor Hoblett.
He's doing all kinds of stuff that as a doctor, you're not supposed to be doing. He's running a pain pill mill, right, He's just like doing scripts for all kinds of things for people who don't need them. So then the Feds come in and the FEDS arrest him. All of that eventually ended up in him completely losing his license to practice medicine.
One of the main witnesses to testify against him was now completely discredited. This was huge for Butch's case. In fact, every piece of evidence the state had used against him had been discredited. Allison says that when all the new evidence was presented.
You could fill the shift in the courtroom when the judge and the prosecutor. I think really started to realize, Oh my goodness, we got an innocent man.
Butch's father died while he was in prison. But his mom got to sit in the courtroom and hear all the evidence that will likely get her son out of prison. She died just a month later. In the meantime, Butch waits and thinks about what he'll do with his freedom, if and when it comes. He says he liked to drag race again and build some rental homes. He's excited to finally bond with his nieces nephews. And now they're kids, and there's a lot of them.
Let's see, I have three daughters. My oldest daughter has three daughters, and my middle daughter has a son and a daughter. So he has one great nephew and four great nieces.
What are you gonna do with them when you're out?
Kidnap them and keep them.
But most of all, Butch just wants justice for the family he lost.
I miss him so bad. You know, if there is ever real I'm gonna to watch Marshall kids as she will.
If you want to help Butch, go to Innocence Texas dot org and click on Take action next time on Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Nancy Smith.
They said that you didn't take her daughter to school.
You took her daughter to a birthday party where you molested.
Her, and I'm like, what what are you talking about?
Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the links in our bio to see how you can help. I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson, and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
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