BENTON—There were no surprises in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois this afternoon when a haggard and extremely thin Raymond Martin once again took a seat at the defense table in a scene reminiscent from September 2010.
In fact, perhaps the only surprise today was Martin’s appearance, as many almost didn’t recognize the former Gallatin County sheriff; several remarked later that if he hadn’t been wearing prison orange and chains, they might not have believed it was Martin at all. Martin was astonishingly thin, his skin and hair gray, his eyes hollow and cheeks sunken in. In short, he looked skeletal and rather ill.
Martin was in Benton today, December 7, 2012, once more after having spent the last two and a half years in the Federal Bureau of Prisons having received two life sentences for using a weapon in the commission of a drug crime, this dating back to early 2009, when he threatened one of his pot sellers, Jeremy Potts, with his service revolver, after Potts expressed a desire to get out of the dope selling biz. Throughout a two-week federal jury trial in September 2010, it was revealed what Disclosure had published about Martin in 2006 was true: he was moving mass quantities of pot through the county, and using local felons, like Potts, to facilitate that.
Raymond Martin: He no longer looks like this. Really. He looks BAD.
Martin was convicted on all charges against him, including drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit it, using a weapon in the commission of a drug felony, Intimidation of Federal Witnesses, conspiracy to commit intimidation of the witnesses, and attempted structuring of a financial transaction to prevent discovery.
He was sentenced on January 19, 2011, to life on the two weapons convictions, and five years on each of the other convictions.
However, Martin appealed his sentence almost immediately, and in September 2011, the Second District Court of Appeals ruled that while they were upholding his convictions, they were remanding the sentencing back to the federal court on a minor technicality regarding the difference between having used “statutory” and “guideline/advisory” sentencing terms.
In the end today, it made no difference at all, as Judge Phil Gilbert issued the exact same sentence, only under the guidelines terminology as opposed to the statutory terminology. That’s all it boiled down to; and while it was confusing, and at times since a little over a year ago, worrisome, it made not a minute’s difference in Martin’s length of time he’ll spend behind bars.
Nor, it seemed, did the impassioned pleadings of his sisters, Patricia Ann Brazier and Wanda Rexing, who both took the stand and tearfully read prepared statements designed to try to persuade the judge to let Martin go TODAY and allow him to return to his family, where “after he’s been pruned” he can be “a productive vine and produce good fruit” (not our words; that one belonged to Brazier). Rexing’s entreaties were even more bizarre and at times made less sense, but were delivered through tears and genuine sobs. Seems that Raymond was the baby of the family, with his daddy being 74 when he was born and his momma being 33 (he has six older sisters, and all of them were in attendance today.) Because the family was dirt poor, Martin learned “survival mode” early, and this is what his sisters believed was the reason why he took the actions he did and what lead him to being the pot kingpin of Gallatin County, with a big house, lots of property and a penchant for nice things—all because he had “done without” for so long. No mention of the former sheriff Glen McCabe having taken Raymond under his wing so he could learn how to cultivate good Vietnamese cannabis in the rich volcanic Gallatin County soil; no mention of how Ray and John Robinson made trips to see the Latin Kings in Chicago to keep the pot flowing when the crops weren’t good; no mention of how Raymondo told David Duffy that Duffy could keep on making meth as long as his meth making didn’t interfere with Ray’s pot business. Just “we were so poor” and “that’s why Ray hoarded and was always careful with everything he had.”
In fact, this “hoarding” excuse was used as the reason why Ray had those pills in his possession at the Williamson County jail on October 30, according to Rexing. She said that Ray “always plans for the future” and no doubt collected up those antidepressants “just in case” he got into a spot where he wouldn’t be able to take them (he’s been suffering depression while in the federal prison system).
One thing was very marked about the sisters’ implorings…they both blamed the media for Martin’s predicament. Repeatedly they issued statements to the effect that “he’s not like they say in the media” and “all these things they say about him in the media just aren’t true.” At no time did they say anything about the allegations that the government said about him, which would be more appropriate, since all the media said about Martin came from either personal experience or straight out of court files or hearings.
Even Martin himself stood before the judge and did his best to plead for leniency. He asked for “time served” and asked to be released in time for Christmas. He repeatedly stated that he “wanted to be a father again,” and that his daughter had just gotten on the cheerleading squad, he had two young stepsons that he missed (even though he’s now divorced from their mother, Tina Naas) and his youngest son is now 6 and “wants to play baseball.”
Martin even addressed the dope found in his cell and took full responsibility for it. Gilbert asked Martin where the drugs came from; Martin answered honestly: “From other inmates I came in contact with on my way en route to Williamson County” (where he was being held since late October pending today’s hearing).
“But how did the drugs get in your cell?” Gilbert pressed.
Martin hemmed and hawed, and asked if he had to tell that in front of his sisters.
“Well, I mean, did you keister em in??” Gilbert asked…and he wasn’t laughing.
“I’d just rather not say,” Martin said (and we could tell at this point that he’d just shot in the foot any chance he may have had of getting Gilbert to reduce his sentence, as this was the only question Gilbert actually asked of him; the man wanted to know what was going on in the feds’ own prison system, and there was Martin standing there in a position to come clean about it all….and he didn’t.)
Martin did, however, tell all kinds of things about being in the federal pen, how they can stay in bed til noon, have lunch, play cards, watch TV, go to the rec yard, have dinner, watch TV and play cards some more. “Prison is a great place to learn how to be a bum,” Martin told Gilbert. “But I’m not a bum. I want to work, and provide for my kids.” Martin begged the judge for the chance to “dance at my daughter’s wedding,” and asked that he be sentenced to time served and put on a very strict mandatory supervised release for a number of years as an alternate sentence.
Gilbert would hve none of it.
Gilbert pointed out that all the things Martin was missing out on (his daughter’s cheerleading, his youngest son’s baseball games) was because of action MARTIN took, not because of anything else. The judge was very methodical in addressing every point Martin made; he was very careful to address each issue raised. But in the end, Gilbert said, once again, Martin took no onus upon himself except perhaps for the drugs secreted into his Williamson County cell (and even then, he wouldn’t tell HOW.)
Gilbert then reiterated every point he’d made in January 2011, telling Martin that as the duly-elected sheriff, he was being held to a higher standard than the regular citizen, as he’d abused the taxpayers’ trust, used taxpayer money to his own advantage, broke the law, tampered with votes during elections and even gambled on elections, including his own (this was a new tidbit).
Martin was re-sentenced to two life sentences on counts 4 and 5 (the weapons in a commission of a drug crime counts), and five years on each of the other charges (1-3, 6-15). It was not made readily apparent whether that was from this day forward, or whether he’d already been given more than three years time served.
Martin was told he has ten days to file an appeal on this sentence.
Gilbert then allowed his sisters to come forward and get a chance to hug and talk to their little brother. He was lead away shortly to be taken back to his cell in Williamson County, awaiting transport back into the federal prison system.
We’ll have much more on this, including full transcripts of Martin’s remarks as well as those of the judge, the prosecuting attorney for the government, James M. Cutchin, and Martin’s attorney John O’Gara, who is an incredibly capable attorney out of Belleville, but didn’t have much to work with in this case, in the upcoming print edition, on stands December 19…be watching for deliveries.