On this day, May 11, 2019, Kit Martin was arrested at the Louisville International Airport and charged with the murders of three of his neighbors. Current Governor and then-Attorney General Andy Beshear announced the arrest at a news conference. He offered no information about what new evidence had led to the arrest. Instead, he made the following statement:
“I hope this is a day that brings some justice to these families. There are many steps from here, but we hope this is one example of when you never stop seeking justice, when you never give up, that we can truly get important results for these families.”
Attorney General Andy Beshear
It’s unclear how much Andy Beshear knew about the evidence used to get an indictment. It’s possible that he was fed the same false information as the grand jury about cell phone location data. It’s also possible that he wanted to take credit for solving a cold case just weeks before a primary election for Governor. What we do know is that justice was not served, and an innocent man now sits in prison after being wrongly convicted.
If there is any doubt about Kit Martin’s innocence, all one has to do is look at the actions of the lead detective, Lenoard Scott Smith, post-conviction. Detective Scott Smith knew that a book was coming out that would expose his botched investigation, his false testimony before a grand jury, and his deception during the trial. Rather than face criticism about those facts, he decided to try more deception by making unfounded claims about new evidence. The truth is that his plan backfired spectacularly. For one, by claiming that he now thinks that a gun found in a house in North Carolina is “the murder weapon,” he completely undermined the original conviction. He is admitting that they didn’t prove their case at trial. But it’s even worse than that because, like the guns submitted at trial, he has no evidence that this new gun was used in the murders. So, not only is he admitting that he isn’t sure about the guns presented to the jury as the potential murder weapons, but he’s now added a fourth possible gun that he also isn’t sure about. So much for proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
It’s clear that Scott Smith didn’t think things through. He had this new gun for more than six months before his TV appearance, where he stated that you didn’t stop investigating just because you have a conviction. Really? When he first learned about this new gun, I’m sure he thought he had new evidence that would prove him right. But the gun wasn’t even in working condition. They couldn’t do ballistics testing. But he knew this book, I Will Ruin You, was coming out, which is critical of his investigation. What does Scott Smith do? He goes on network TV and says he “thinks” this was the murder weapon, but they can’t prove it because Kit had disassembled the gun. He completely overlooked the fact that two guns were used in the murders. Why would you go through all of this trouble of disassembling and concealing one gun and then place the second murder weapon in your gun safe?
In investigation parlance, it’s called tunnel vision and confirmation bias. This is where an investigator only looks at evidence that supports his or her theory and discards or explains away everything that goes against it. Another technical term that could describe Detective Scott Smith’s actions is CYA.
For five years, Kit has been locked away from his family. Every day he spends behind bars is an injustice. Everything that happens from this point forward will be aimed at helping Kit regain his freedom, prosecuting the people responsible for the murders, and holding accountable the people who allowed this to happen.
