A Washington state man will spend more than six decades behind bars for ordering two teens to murder a 16-year-old boy in retaliation for a robbery he did not commit.
A sentence of nearly 61 years in prison was handed down to Isiah Davon Martin, who is 31 years old, on Friday for the murder of Larry “Trae” Marshall III, who was 16 years old. This information was reported by the Tacoma News Tribune. According to the documents filed with the court, Martin was found guilty of third-degree murder, first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree by a jury in June.
The trauma began four days before the murder, on March 25, 2023, when Martin was robbed at a nearby mall, according to a sentencing memorandum written by the prosecution after the murder. According to the prosecution, Martin contracted Davonte J. Pool and Vincent L. Bradley III, who were 17 and 16 years old at the time of the shooting, to carry out his dirty deed. A memo stated that the suspects went visited the Lakeside Landing Apartments in Tacoma in the days preceding up to the murder in order to “look for a suitable target.”
The suspects were driving to the complex on March 29, 2023, shortly after one o’clock in the afternoon, when they came across Trae. According to the prosecutors, Trae was not the person who robbed Martin, but he was acquaintances with the individuals who commit the crime. Trae was making his way to the complex in order to meet up with his friends. Martin, who was driving, performed a U-turn and parked his vehicle for the moment. Pool and Bradley were instructed to exit their vehicles and begin firing against Trae as soon as he entered the gate. Before getting back into Matin’s car and driving away, Pool and Bradley fired a total of 33 shots at Trae, according to the document as it was written.
“The three killed Trae, a 16-year-old boy, who appears to have had nothing to do with Defendant’s robbery,” prosecutors submitted evidence. As a matter of fact, Trae only caused harm to the defendant by making fun of him online and stating that he was affiliated with the children who had robbed him. In the midst of a weekday, that was all that was required for the defendant to set up an ambush and have his co-conspirators shoot Trae without discrimination.
In his testimony during his trial, Martin, who was rendered crippled as a result of a shooting that occurred approximately ten years ago, asserted that Pool and Bradley acted independently and made a decision in a “spit second.”
At the time of the sentencing, Judge Philip Sorensen of the Pierce County Superior Court made the observation that Martin was the only adult in the vehicle, but he did not behave in a manner consistent with an adult.
“This community needs adults that will help kids see right from wrong, that will help kids do what needs to be done to keep themselves and this community safe,” Sorensen told the newspaper, according to the News Tribune. “To me, this is the worst kind of betrayal to this community that we could have.”
Mr. Martin was the only adult in that vehicle, and he is the only person in that vehicle who had a motive for the crime, said the prosecutor, Brad Hashimoto. He was the one who led these children to commit a dreadful act.
An earlier conviction and sentence of twenty years in jail was handed down to Pool and Bradley.
The family has created a GoFundMe page in which they have posted an homage to Trae.
