Tracey L. Martin, Appellant-Defendant v. State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff (2025)

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Case Summary

[1] Tracey L. Martin appeals his conviction for murder, arguing that the evidence is insufficient to support it. We disagree and affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] The evidence most favorable to Martin's conviction is as follows. In 2017, Martin was dating Suzanne Moore. They lived in a house in Fort Wayne with Martin's mother and brother. On the morning of August 19, Moore's supervisor at work heard her having an argument on her cell phone. When their shift ended later that morning, the supervisor saw Moore get into the passenger side of an older, tan car, where she appeared to argue with the male driver.

[3] That afternoon, Martin and Moore visited Moore's parents’ home. Moore's mother noted that Martin and Moore's interactions were not “standoffish, but cool, maybe.” Tr. Vol. 4 p. 54. Martin and Moore left sometime after 7:00 p.m. At 10:12 p.m., Moore texted her mother to say she and Martin had made it home. Around the same time, Martin's mother was preparing to leave the house to work an overnight shift starting at 11:00 p.m. Before she left, she heard Martin and Moore arguing.

[4] Around 5:30 a.m. the next morning, Martin called 911 pretending to be Moore. He said, “I'm injured” and “I'm dying.” Ex. 5. The operator asked what was wrong, and Martin said, “Overdose.” Id. When the operator offered to put a medic on the phone, Martin said, “I'm headed to [St. Joseph Hospital]. Somebody's taking me there now.” Id. Martin then hung up. There is no record of Moore being at St. Joseph Hospital that day.

[5] Later that morning, Martin used an ATM to withdraw just over $500 from Moore's bank account. Shortly before noon, Martin texted Moore's mother asking if she had heard from Moore. He said Moore “stormed out” after they talked about “some male numbers she had in her phone[.]” Exs. 9-10. Moore's mother said she hadn't heard from Moore. Martin's mother returned home from work around noon. She asked Martin where Moore was, and Martin said she was sleeping. Martin's mother didn't see or speak to Moore that day.

[6] At about 2:00 p.m., a driver found Moore dead on the side of a road in rural Noble County. She had been shot in the back of the head. The condition of the scene and of Moore's body indicated that she had been killed elsewhere, transported, and placed on the roadside. The location where she was found is an approximately 27-minute drive from where she and Martin lived in Fort Wayne.

[7] A doctor performed an autopsy at around 10:00 a.m. the next day, August 21. Based on the condition of Moore's body, the doctor estimated she had died at least 24 hours earlier. The doctor recovered a bullet from her brain.

[8] Also on August 21, police executed a search warrant at the Martin home. A key on Martin's keychain opened a locked safe in a room adjacent to Martin's bedroom. Inside the safe there was a handgun. The State's firearm expert later conducted comparison testing and concluded that the bullet found in Moore's brain was fired from the gun found in the safe. See Exs. 98-99.

[9] Police interviewed Martin, and he said Moore left their house on foot at some point before she was found dead. But he provided differing accounts of when she left and whether he had talked with his mother about Moore's whereabouts. When told that Moore had been found dead, Martin didn't ask how or where she died.

[10] Police also searched two cars to which Martin had access, including a tan 2002 Chevrolet Impala registered to Martin's mother. The Impala's back seat appeared cleaner than the rest of the car and “probably could have been wiped down[.]” Tr. Vol. 4 p. 161. In the trunk there were two bags containing cleaning products.

[11] In 2024, the State charged Martin with murder, a firearm enhancement, and a habitual-offender enhancement. (The parties do not explain the charging delay.) A jury trial was held in July 2024, but the jury couldn't reach a verdict. A second jury trial was held in December. The jury found Martin guilty as charged. The trial court sentenced Martin to 100 years in the Department of Correction.

[12] Martin now appeals.

Discussion and Decision

[13] Martin contends the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction for murder. When reviewing sufficiency-of-the-evidence claims, we neither reweigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of witnesses. Willis v. State, 27 N.E.3d 1065, 1066 (Ind. 2015). We will only consider the evidence supporting the conviction and any reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the evidence. Id. A conviction will be affirmed if there is substantial evidence of probative value to support each element of the offense such that a reasonable trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.

[14] Contrary to our standard of review, Martin's argument focuses on three “gaps” in the State's evidence rather than the evidence most favorable to the conviction. First, despite Moore being shot in the head and bleeding heavily, no blood was found anywhere in any location or car tied to Martin. Second, the State couldn't establish a specific time of death. Third, the State's firearm expert admitted that her opinion was “subjective,” Tr. Vol. 5 p. 51, and that she couldn't identify a specific error rate. Martin's argument amounts to a request for us to reweigh the evidence, which we cannot do.

[15] We limit our review to the evidence supporting the conviction, and that evidence is substantial. Before Moore died, she and Martin were arguing, acting “cool” toward each other, and discussing her having other men's phone numbers. About eight hours before Moore's body was found, Martin called 911 pretending to be her and claiming to have overdosed. Martin then made an ATM withdrawal from Moore's bank account. About two hours before Moore's body was found, Martin asked her mother if she had heard from her, but minutes later he told his own mother Moore was sleeping in their house. A handgun was found in a safe Martin had access to, and the State's firearm expert concluded that it fired the bullet found in Moore's brain. Martin gave police inconsistent answers about the last time he saw Moore and about his communications with his mother. When Martin was told that Moore was dead, he didn't ask any questions about her death. And a car Martin had access to had a clean back seat that “could have been wiped down” and cleaning products in the trunk. This evidence, while circumstantial, is more than sufficient to support Martin's conviction.

[16] Affirmed

Vaidik, Judge.

Judges Mathias and Pyle concur. Mathias, J., and Pyle, J., concur.