A pilot for an American Airlines subsidiary has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of three people.
A Christian County grand jury indicted Martin on Friday for the 2015 slayings of Calvin and Pamela Phillips, and Edward Dansereau.
Martin has been charged with three counts of murder, one count of arson, one count of attempted arson, burglary in the first degree, and three counts of tampering with physical evidence.
He was arrested early Saturday morning at the Louisville International Airport with the help of the United States Marshals Service, Christian County Sheriff’s Office, and Louisville Metro Police.
Martin was living in North Carolina at the time of the indictment for crimes committed in Kentucky.
Witness Ashley Martin of Elizabethtown, Kentucky—not related to the suspect in any way—was at the airport when the pilot was arrested.
Triple Homicide
According to the attorney general, the indictment relates to events that occurred either on or around November 18, 2015, when Calvin Phillips was found shot to death in his Pembroke home.Phillips’s wife, Pamela, and their neighbor, Edward Dansereau, were found several miles away in a cornfield, dead inside a burned car.
Relatives of Calvin and Pamela Phillips had offered a $100,000 reward to help solve the case. Family members said Saturday they had an “overflowing of emotion, sincere relief, and absolute gratitude to all those who have worked diligently on this case.”
“Every day, we are haunted by what was done to them and haunted further that someone was still free to do as they wish, beyond the civility of mankind or laws of our nation,” the family members of the victims said in a statement. “We look forward to justice in court, and we look forward to a verdict to bring an end to this terror and a fresh start at healing.”
Beshear said he hoped justice would be served.
“I hope this is a day that brings some justice to these families,” Beshear said. “There are many steps from here, but we hope this is one example of when you never stop seeking justice, when you never give up, that we can truly get important results for these families.”
“All of us at American Airlines and PSA Airlines are deeply saddened to have learned about these allegations from 2015,“ an American Airlines representative told Fox News. ”Our team was made aware of the indictment this morning after his arrest at Louisville International Airport. We have an unwavering commitment to the safety and security of our customers and team members, and we will provide any investigative assistance possible to law enforcement throughout their investigation.”
Crime in the United States
Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).Both studies are based on data up to and including 2017, the most recent year for which complete figures are available.
While the overall rate of violent crime has seen a steady downward drop since its peak in the 1990s, there have been several upticks that bucked the trend.
Property Crime
The property crime rate fell by 50 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBI, and by 69 percent according to BJS.According to the FBI’s preliminary figures for the first half of 2018, property crime rates in the United States dropped by 7.2 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017.
Public Perception About Crime
Despite falling long-term trends in both violent crime and property crime, opinion surveys repeatedly show Americans believe that crime is up.Perceptions differed on a national versus local level.