Accused killer fires attorney; judge wants case sped up

Jeffrey Martinson wanted a quick trial.

But his request last month for a new attorney has turned the clock back on what was already a slow and plodding case that is more than three years old.

Martinson, 41, is charged with the first-degree murder of his 5-year-old son, Joshua Eberle-Martinson, and faces the possibility of the death penalty when he does go to trial.

Judge Joseph Heilman sealed the court documents in which Martinson asked for a new attorney, thereby making the defendant’s request unclear.

What is clear is that Heilman doesn’t want new counsel to slow the case any more than necessary.

“He’s starting all over, at day one, for all purposes,” Heilman said at a status hearing Feb. 26.

At the same time, he insisted that the new legal team get up to speed.

“This case has been dragging for a long period of time,” Heilman said.

He set a status conference for March 27 at which time he hopes the new legal team, headed by Gary Bevilacqua from the Public Defenders Office, will be able to move forward.

What hasn’t changed for Martinson is that Alan Simpson, a private attorney hired by his family to assist the state-paid public defenders. Simpson has been involved from the beginning and the judge hopes he will be able to get the new team of attorneys up to speed quickly.

Police say that Joshua, after a weekend trip to his father’s in 2004, was discovered dead on the top bunk of a bedroom in Martinson’s Ahwatukee Foothills apartment. Nearby, police found Martinson in the master bedroom, unconscious with cuts on his wrists. All around the apartment police discovered empty prescription bottles, over-the counter medicine, an empty liquor bottle and plastic bags that may have been used to suffocate the child.

Joshua’s mother, Kristin Eberle, became concerned when Martinson didn’t return Joshua on Sunday, Aug. 24, so she went to his apartment in the 5100 block of East Piedmont Road. When she couldn’t get an answer, Eberle called police.

Martinson admitted to police he attempted suicide and passed out Saturday night. He also told police that when he awoke on Sunday and discovered his son was dead he then tried to commit suicide a second time using Tylenol PM.

He has been in custody in jail since his arrest that day.

The Medical Examiner, Dr. John Hu, wrote that the child was murdered and that the cause was carisoprodol poisoning, with asphyxia a possibility.

Carisoprodol is an active ingredient in Soma, a muscle relaxer, and that will be the crux of the defense’s case.

Hu said Joshua died from an overdose of Soma, but in a motion filed by Simpson and the defense, they point out that there is no scientific standard for what is a lethal dose of Soma for a 40-pound child, only what is a lethal dose for an adult.

Despite carisoprodol being found in Joshua’s stomach and blood, the defense wants Hu’s opinions tossed out and have their own expert, Dr. Janet Ophoven, an assistant coroner in rural St. Louis County, Minn., who will testify that the cause of death is only Hu’s opinion, not a scientific fact.