Lawyers for a pimp accused of killing and dismembering a sex worker to collect on $200,000 in life insurance tried Friday to pin the blame on the suspect’s accomplice-turned-government witness, who they claim was motivated by jealousy over a love triangle.
Cory Martin, 36, is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for murdering 26-year-old Brandy Odom in his Rosedale, Queens, home in 2018. Martin allegedly used a reciprocating saw to sever Odom’s limbs and head from her torso, and then dumped her body parts in a Brooklyn park.
Adelle Anderson, 35, who lived with Martin and Odom, is accused of taking out the insurance policies on Odom’s life. Anderson pleaded guilty of in that case in 2021.
Martin’s lawyer said Anderson and Odom fought each other after Martin and Odom began to have sex — and that the feuding gave Anderson a motive for killing her onetime friend and fellow sex worker.
“Adelle grew to dislike her, and by the time of Brandy’s murder, Adelle hated her. That’s motive,” said Anthony Cecutti, a lawyer for Martin.
“Cory did not know her that well. He did not have a reason to hate her,” said Cecutti. “Brandy had sexual relations with two of Adelle’s children’s fathers.”
“This was not hate, this was pure greed,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Dean in a rebuttal, describing how Martin was $62,000 behind on his mortgage. Upon Odom’s death, Dean said, Martin began looking up reviews of luxury cars in anticipation of a financial windfall.
Odom’s head and torso were found by a dogwalker in Canarsie Park in April 2018. The following day, her limbs were recovered in garbage bags.
Martin became a suspect within weeks after cops discovered video of him backing his car into the driveway of his home and putting large plastic bags — believed to contain Odom’s dismembered remains — into the trunk.
Martin allegedly got dismemberment how-to tips from the TV crime drama “Dexter,” and tips about police procedures from a crime documentary series, “The First 48.”
It wasn’t until November 2020 that Martin and Anderson were charged, initially with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for taking out policies on Odom and trying to collect on them after her murder.
A month after Anderson took a plea deal in the case, Martin was charged with murder for hire.
Cecutti also said Anderson had manufactured the abuse she testified Martin inflicted upon her in their tumultuous on-again off-again relationship that began when they were in high school.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors told the court that Martin forced the two women to be naked at all times around the house, forbade them from showering and eating without his permission, and forced them to call him “Daddy.” Prosecutors also alleged that Martin had punched Anderson in the face, held a knife to her, and threatened to kill her and her son.
“Did she look like she was in fear?” Cecutti said of Anderson, referring to her appearance when she testified at the trial.
Cecutti called Anderson “a woman in control”. “Did she look like she took directions from anyone?” he asked.
The defense also pointed to sexually-charged texts between Martin and Anderson as evidence of their closeness.
“It is undeniable that Cory Martin abused her,” said prosecutor Dean. “He discounts that domestic violence and the cycle of domestic violence in a relationship even exist. He argues that if it was ever bad, then it can’t be good.”
“She told you herself about the abuse, ‘I always lied about the abuse’,” countered defense lawyer Cecutti.
“When he concludes in his PowerPoint presentation a quote ‘I lied about the abuse’,” said Dean. “That was something she said when she lied about the abuse to doctors.”
“Consider that when you have to credit anything he has to say to you at all,” concluded Dean.
The judge in the case began instructing the jury late Friday, after which deliberations were expected to begin.
