Black Baseball Player Pleads Not Guilty to Beating Father Uncle and White Alarm Installer to Death

KTLA
September 27, 2015

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Barry Swanson was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a Negro, while out doing his daily job of installing burglar alarms.

A 22-year-old former MLB prospect pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three counts of murder in the beating deaths of his father, uncle and an alarm system installer who was working at the family’s home in Corona at the time of the alleged crimes.

Brandon Willie Martin was also facing special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, which make him eligible for the death penalty, according to John Hall with the Riverside County District Attorney Office.

Officers with the Corona Police Department were called to the home on Winthrop Drive about 6:35 p.m. on Thursday.

When they arrived, officers found 64-year-old Michael Martin, the suspect’s father, and 62-year-old Barry Swanson, a sub-contractor for the home security company ADT, deceased at the location, a news release from the Police Department stated.

The defendant’s uncle Ricky Lee Anderson, 51, of Corona, was rushed to a hospital where he died of his injuries two days later.

All three victims had been beaten to death with a baseball bat, according to Hall.

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Brandon Willie Martin is accused of killing three people all at one time.

Outside the courthouse Tuesday, the family of Barry Swanson urged people not to focus on the defendant, but rather on the lives of the victims who were lost.

Swanson’s son described the heartbreaking loss of a family patriarch who fought in Vietnam and led a “beautiful life.”

“We loved my father, said Jeremy Swanson. “He was a good man. He did not deserve this, nobody deserves this.”

The attack occurred shortly after Brandon Martin was released from a psychiatric care facility in Riverside where he had been held for two days for a mental health evaluation after making threats against his family, Corona police Sgt. Brent Nelson said.

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