Martin "Marty" Winston was a civil litigator for the Pan World Airline Flight 33 plane crash and the prime suspect in the murders of a judge and two of his clients.
Background
When Winston first took the case, he ran into some interference from a judge, who showed sympathy toward the airline. Winston decided to kill the judge and prepared for the act by lifting a cigarette from one of his clients, Victor Cruz. Winston later set up a fake job interview for Cruz, luring him at a coffee shop near the judge's home. At the same time, Winston entered the judge's home, shot him once in the head, and left the cigarette butt he lifted from Victor to frame him. At the trial, he became the prosecution's main witness against Cruz and testified about Cruz's threats toward the judge. Winston even lied on the stand, saying that he does not allow smoking in his office. Cruz was eventually found guilty and sentenced to death, which was carried out five years later.
By Perjury
It was later discovered that Charles Sawyer's mother, Bernadette, had oxygen tanks stored on the plane. When one of the tanks blew up her house on Monday, it gave Sawyer a possible alternate explanation of how the plane crashed. He sets up a meeting with opposing counsel and informs Winston of the development. When he claims he was leaving the lawsuit and joining the airline with an alternate theory of how the plane came down, Winston became furious. He borrows his neighbor's car, drove up to Sawyer's car before he met with the opposing counsel, and fired three shots at Sawyer, with one bullet hitting his head. Winston then steals Sawyer's oxygen tank to preserve his case against the airline.
He then went to Sawyer's mother's house in Pennsylvania to steal any other tanks to cover his tracks, but was arrested by the police in the process. He managed to get the arrest voided and later talked with Detectives Lupo and Bernard about Sawyer's death, to whom he told them about his case on the airline. During the conversation, he tries to steer them to a conspiracy theorist named Peter Belanger. When the detectives discovered Bernadette's oxygen tanks blowing up her house, they question Winston again about his clients having a motive to kill him. The detectives later begin looking at Winston for the murder. Winston is later arrested for the murder after detectives got the record unofficially unsealed and they find a shell casing in his neighbor's car, fired from the gun that killed Sawyer.
Winston decides to represent himself and convinces the judge to release him on $1,000,000 bail, impose a gag order, and close the courtroom to protect his financial interests in the lawsuit. Winston then serves Executive ADA Cutter and ADA Rubirosa with financial disclosure affidavits to see if they own stock in PanWorld Airlines. He then files a motion to suppress all of the evidence collected from the neighbor's car and uses Lupo's status as a first-year law student to suggest that he knew he was breaking the law via People v. Binns and did not care. As a result, the judge rules to suppress the evidence and Winston immediately files for a dismissal of all charges due to the lack of evidence. The judge decides to give the prosecution three days to find new evidence or she will dismiss the charges with prejudice. When they cannot find anything, the case is dismissed, triggering double jeopardy. Winston files another motion to put a gag order on this trial with Cutter strongly opposing this motion. The argument escalates to a degree where the judge finds them both in contempt of court and orders them both to pay $1,000 while granting Winston's motion.
Mike later comes to Winston's office to supposedly get him to sign a document asking the judge to change her mind on the contempt charges. During the meeting, he asks Winston if he can smoke. Winston says that even though he is a former smoker, he will not stop him. They then discuss the case against the airline and Winston's plans on moving into a new office. Bernard and Lupo later arrest Winston again during a motion for his case for the murder of Victor Cruz, using his testimony in his trial and Cutter's actions to secure the indictment. Winston hires a real defense attorney and attempts to dismiss Cutter's case. However, the judge listens to a juror's testimony and denies Winston's motion, but allows him to remain on bail. ADA Rubirosa later files a complaint with the Grievance Committee on behalf of Victor Cruz's family to remove Winston as counsel. Winston argues that he has not yet been convicted and they have no grounds to bar him or deny him payment. However, the grievance counsel sees through his deceit and not only disqualifies him as counsel, but denies him any form of compensation from the settlement. A vengeful Winston follows Cutter into the bathroom, and is about to shoot him when Lupo and Bernard arrive, rescuing Cutter and arresting Winston.
Winston was tried and convicted of one count each of first-degree perjury and assault in the second degree, along with two counts of felony murder. He is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in prison.
Known Victims
- 2003: Judge Henry Davis (shot once in the head)
- 2008:
- June: Victor Cruz (was sentenced to death for the murder of Judge Davis through Winston's statement of perjury)
- November 25: Charles Sawyer (shot once in the head)
- December 5: EADA Michael Cutter (assaulted)