While Kit and his legal team were concerned about Kit’s chances at a court-martial, the JAG prosecutors were equally concerned. The cross-examinations of Joan and her children at the Article 32 hearing showed that it wasn’t a slam dunk. There were no medical records that would corroborate the abuse. There were no witnesses other than Joan and her children. There were no 911 calls, except the one on September 5, 2012, and the allegations of abuse that night had been discredited by officer Frye.
With all thirteen charges allowed to go forward to a court-martial, CID investigators and JAG prosecutors desperately needed something to back up the allegations from Joan and her children.
Kit meanwhile was doing his best to gather evidence showing that Joan was a pathological liar. Whenever he would come across damning evidence against Joan, he would share the information with the prosecutor’s office. When Mary Martins located Carlos Guerra, Kit gave the JAG prosecutors Carlos’s contact information. They followed up on the lead shortly after receiving the information, visiting Carlos at his home.
Carlos confirmed that he was still legally married to Joan. He denied abusing Joan or his two girls. He told the investigators how Joan had left with his children and denied him an opportunity to be with them for the past ten years.
Special Victims investigators also tracked down leads that Joan was feeding them. They interviewed a Ms. Jessica Seller, someone who knew the Martins while they were in Germany. Ms. Seller told them that Joan had emailed her the pictures of EJ and made claims of abuse in the email, but she added that it didn’t seem like something Major Martin would do. She also said that her contact with Joan and her children was mostly when Kit was deployed and that she never said anything about abuse during those visits.
Investigators interviewed a Mr. Keith Andes, another Joan lead. Mr. Andes said that he had never witnessed Kit do anything abusive. He added that he would not hesitate to let Kit watch his own children.
Unable to find any corroborating evidence of child and spousal abuse, which Joan claimed had started when they were in Germany, the JAG prosecutors came up with a plan B. They would claim that while Kit appeared one way in public that he was a monster behind closed doors. Joan’s son EJ would use that description repeatedly when talking about Kit. The quote below is from an interview EJ did with Channel 4 News Nashville after Kit’s indictment for murder.
He would hide behind a mask in public, in front of everybody, and act like he was this great major in the military. Behind closed doors, he was very evil. He was a tyrant. A monster. All of the above.
In the interview clip below, Christopher McNutt, who was in the army with Kit when both were stationed in Germany, talks about his interactions with Joan and Kit during the time Joan alleged the abuse began.
