David Deval Martin, 39, was convicted of murder in McIntosh County in October 2016 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
However, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 in its McGirt decision that state courts lacked jurisdiction on crimes involving Indians in Indian Country, Martin appealed his conviction.
The State Court of Criminal Appeals, in 2021, vacated the lower court’s decision and ordered the case be turned over to federal court for prosecution.
Martin, nicknamed “Tooney,” remained incarcerated while awaiting the filing of federal charges. Those charges were finally filed and his trial began on Oct. 8, concluding on Oct. 11.
Martin, of McIntosh County, was again found guilty, this time of Murder in Indian Country.
During the trial, the United States presented evidence that on Nov. 7, 2013, Martin killed a Checotah area woman with malice aforethought. At trial, the government presented evidence that Martin viciously beat and stabbed the victim, who sustained over 109 separate injuries during the attack, including dozens of injuries to the head and neck.
At the scene of the crime, investigators recovered Martin’s DNA mixed with the victim’s own blood from the front door of the home, and Martin’s fingerprint on the handle of a metal rod used to beat the victim.
Martin’s DNA was also recovered from the steering wheel of the victim’s abandoned car. The crime occurred in McIntosh County, within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation of Oklahoma, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The guilty verdicts were the result of investigations by the Mc-Intosh County Sheriff ’s Office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Honorable Timothy D. DeGiusti, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, sitting by assignment, presided over the trial in Oklahoma City and ordered the completion of a presentence report. The sentencing will be scheduled following completion of the report. Martin will remain in the custody of the United States Marshal until sentencing.
Trial Attorneys Jared Hernandez and Bryan Lynch from the Department of Justice Violent Crime and Racketeering Section represented the United States.
Martin’s victim was Jennifer Kitchens.
She was killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 7, 2013.
Two of the strongest pieces of evidence in the trial were a partial fingerprint an OSBI expert said belonged to Martin that was covered with the victim’s blood – and DNA evidence that also was identified as belonging to Martin.
The fingerprint was found on a bloody, metal, bent broom handle.
Kitchens’ body had many bruises shaped like a broom handle.
The DNA identified as belonging to Martin was found on the inside of the front door of the victim’s house.
The most gruesome day of week long trial came Monday, when State Medical Examiner Medical Examiner Andrea Wiens described the more than 109 separate traumas to Kitchens’ body.
In the melee of blows, 17 of Kitchens’ 24 ribs were fractured.
“There were more rib fractures than I have ever seen on a patient,” Wiens said.
The forensic pathologist testified that the 17 fractured ribs could have caused her death.
“If all are broken together they can’t work as a unit anymore, and if they can’t move as a unit you can’t breathe – it’s a form of asphyxiation,” she said.
Wiens said Kitchen’s liver was torn in four places, which also could have caused death within an hour or so – but she didn’t live that long.
More than 20 blows to the head and neck causing bleeding on the brain and a fractured skull also could have been fatal even without the other major injuries.
Wiens said the severe beating may have taken as long as 30 minutes.
She described the photos in detail, including the imprint of the sole of the shoe on her left cheek – the same imprint that was found in blood on the floor of Kitchens’ rural residence near Texanna Road northeast of Eufaula.
It took the McIntosh County jury 90 minutes to convict Martin.
