Authorities say that a pilot for a subsidiary of American Airlines was apprehended on Saturday at Louisville International Airport after he was charged in the 2015 murder of a Kentucky couple and their neighbor.
Christian Richard Martin, aged 51, is accused of murdering Calvin and Pamela Phillips and Edward Dansereau in November 2015, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said.
Calvin Phillips was discovered shot to death in his Pembroke, Kentucky, home sometime around November 2015, Beshear said in a statement. The dead bodies of his wife and Dansereau were found a just few miles away in a corn field in Pamela Phillips’ burned up car.
A Christian County grand jury indicted Martin on Friday on three counts of murder; one count of arson; one count of attempted burglary in the first degree; and three counts of tampering with physical evidence. The indictment was sealed until he was taken into custody, Beshear said.
Martin’s family is left devastated, according to Tucker Richardson, Martin’s former lawyer. He vouched for Martin’s character, saying he joined the Armed Forces in response to the September 11 attacks. CNN has reached out to the Department of Defense to confirm Martin’s military service.
He said that Martin would have turned himself in if he had known that authorities intended to arrest him.
The victims’ families welcomed the news in a joint statement through the attorney general’s office.
“Every day, we are haunted by what was done to them and haunted further that someone was still free to do as they wish, beyond the civility of mankind or laws of our nation,” the families said.
“We look forward to justice in court, and we look forward to a verdict to bring an end to this terror, and a fresh start at healing.”
John Kelly, who represented the Phillips family, said that Calvin Phillips was due to testify against Martin in a court case in 2015 when he and his wife were murdered.
Richardson, however, countered that notion by claiming that he hired an investigator to interview Calvin Phillips. The private investigator determined Calvin Phillips would be a star witness for Martin’s side, Richardson said.
“If there is a poster child for ‘life is not fair,’ it would be a picture of Kit Martin,” Richardson said. “They took a fine man and drug him through the mud.”