Pimp Who Watched ‘Dexter’ for Dismemberment Tips Convicted of Murder
A New York pimp convicted Monday of fatally strangling and dismembering a sex worker to collect her life insurance policy got tips for the 2018 grisly murder from crime TV shows Dexter and The First 48, prosecutors said.
Cory Martin, 36, was found guilty in Brooklyn federal court of all charges, including murder-for-hire, in connection with the April 2018 slaying of 26-year-old Brandy Odom. Prosecutors say that Martin was sex trafficking Odom before ultimately murdering her and dumping her remains in Canarsie Park. Afterward, he and a co-conspirator made multiple unsuccessful attempts to collect upwards of $200,000 from life insurance policies they took out in Odom’s name.
“Martin saw the victim as a moneymaker, trafficking her for commercial sex, then after killing her with his bare hands, tossing out her slaughtered body parts like trash so he could profit from her death,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a press release announcing the verdict.
He will be sentenced at a July hearing, where he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
They Dismembered Their Roommate—Then Tried to Cash in Her Life Insurance, Prosecutors Allege
Throughout the two-week trial, prosecutors detailed how Martin planned Odom’s murder for months, including obtaining two life insurance policies between March and December 2017 and paying for them with her debit card, while he kept her in his Queens home.
Adelle Anderson—Martin’s on-and-off girlfriend who took a plea deal for her role in the crime—testified that Martin made her watch true-crime shows with him, like The First 48, to learn “what not to do, and what things to do to avoid being caught by the police,” according to the New York Daily News.
Martin also watched Dexter, a fictional show about a Miami serial killer who dismembered his victims, to learn “ways to commit the crime when he got rid of Brandy,” prosecutors said.
“He didn’t want the house after he committed the crime to be an active crime scene. So he focused a lot on getting rid of or concealing evidence,” Anderson testified.
Prosecutors say that in early April 2019, Martin strangled Odom in her bedroom. Then, he made Anderson cover the bathroom in garbage bags and duct tape before he spent two days dismembering her body with a reciprocating saw. Afterward, Anderson said she drove Martin to the park on two different nights to dispose of Odom’s remains, including her torso and head which was later found by a dog walker.
Odom was identified after her sister recognized her tattoo of the word “Chocolate” on her chest.
Martin’s defense attorneys argued Anderson, who was arrested in 2020 before taking a deal a year later, was the true mastermind behind the insurance scheme after she posed as Odom when she applied for the policies.
“Brandy Odom suffered an unthinkable death at the defendant’s hands, but her life mattered,” Peace said.
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