Ashland man pleads guilty to kidnapping, raping 6-year-old

ASHLAND -  An Ashland man admitted Monday in Ashland County Common Pleas Court that he pulled a six-year-old girl out of her bedroom and raped her in the back yard of her home last August.

Brock D. Martin, 26, of 815 Union St., pleaded guilty to six felony charges as part of a plea bargain in which he also admitted to two other burglaries dating back to 2013, including one that was sex-related.

Martin pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping, two counts of rape and one count of aggravated burglary, all first-degree felonies. He also pleaded guilty to single second-degree felony counts of attempted rape and burglary.  As part of the agreement, the prosecution will drop one count of aggravated burglary and two counts of rape, all first-degree felonies, along with a second-degree felony attempted kidnapping count and a fifth-degree charge of drug possession.

All four rape counts alleged in an 11-count grand jury indictment in September 2015 carried sexually violent predator specifications, while the aggravated burglary and kidnapping charges included sexual motivation and sexually violent predator specifications.

According to Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell, Martin was charged with an incident on Aug. 18, 2015 in which he pushed a fan out of a window of an Orange Street home on Ashland’s north side, reached in and pulled a six-year-old girl out of her bed and raped her in the back yard.  He said Martin ran off into nearby woods after a resident of the home came out of the house and interrupted the incident.  He later was captured by an Ashland Police Department K-9 unit.

During a police interview, Tunnell said Martin confessed to two other, unsolved, crimes, including an Aug. 11, 2015 burglary in the 900 block of Orange Street in which a woman awoke to find him standing over her bed.  Martin fled when he saw the woman’s husband come down the hallway after the husband came home from work.

Martin also admitted to and was charged with an unsolved burglary on March 17, 2013 where he entered an Ashland residence around midnight and assaulted two 13-year-old girls who were having a sleepover.  He attempted to drag one of the girls out of the home but fled after being caught in the act.

The aggravated drug possession charge was for an incident involving Percocet.

Tunnell told reporters Monday that Martin was not familiar with any of his victims.  “It appears all the incidents were completely random,” he said.

Martin originally pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to all counts in the indictment.  However, Judge Ron Forsthoefel determined he was competent to stand trial after reviewing a competency evaluation report by the District V Forensic Diagnostic Center.

During Monday’s hearing, Martin quietly answered “Yes, your honor,” as Forsthoefel asked him if he understood the charges, that he was waiving his right to a trial and most of his appeal rights and was agreeing to a sentence of life in prison without parole and to pay $3,000 in restitution for out-of-pocket victim medical expenses.

The judge indicated he was ready to sentence Martin on Monday but delayed action until Dec. 19 at 9:20 a.m. after defense attorney Rolf Whitney asked for a pre-sentencing investigation into Martin’s background.  Forsthoefel warned Martin that the state was not obligated to withdraw any of the charges if he changed his mind about his guilty pleas before sentencing.

“You understand that if the court orders a pre-sentence investigation report it’s going to give me some information on your background, educational background, treatment and general and criminal history but it’s not going to change the impact of the written plea agreement and the likely sentence you are facing if we proceed with sentencing?” the judge asked.  Martin replied that he did.

One of the victim’s family members muttered that Martin was “one sick (expletive)” as she left the courtroom.  Several other family members were heard to say after they met privately with Tunnell, that they were satisfied with the plea.

Tunnell said the five charges that were dropped involved additional conduct that occurred in each circumstance.  He also emphasized that each situation was accounted for with Martin’s guilty pleas.  Tunnell did not anticipate that the pre-sentence investigation report would change any terms sentence in the plea agreement.