Published: November 09, 2009 05:51 am      

Trial to start in death of TDCJ officer

The murder trial of Texas Department oif Criminal Justice offender Jerry Duane Martin is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Leon County Courthouse in Centerville.

Martin’s trial was scheduled to start today, but it was delayed by one day when a family member of a juror was having surgery.

Walker County Criminal District Attorney David Weeks said a seven-woman, five-man jury was selected Wednesday along with a woman as first alternate and a man as second alternate.

The jury selection process started Oct. 5.

Weeks is prosecuting the case along with Jack Choate and Stephanie Stroud.

Martin’s court-appointed attorneys are William Carter, Paxton Adams and Hope Knight.

State District Court Judge Kenneth Keeling of the 278th Judicial District is trying the case.

Martin is being tried in in the death of Susan Canfield, a TDCJ officer who was killed when Martin and fellow inmate John Ray Falk Jr. escaped from the Wynne Unit off Farm-to-Market Road 2821 on Sept. 24, 2007.

Martin and Falk were indicted by a Walker County grand jury March 2008 in the murder of Canfield.

The charge was elevated to capital murder due to provisions in the Texas State Penal Code that allow a murder to be upgraded to capital if it occurs during an attempted escape from a penal institution.

Weeks said they will open the trial with the reading of the indictment and both sides will give opening statements and then proceed with testimony from the first of 30 witnesses who have been called to testify.

Weeks said the first witness is expected to be Canfield’s husband.

Weeks said the guilt portion of the trial will be focused on proving that Martin is guilty of killing Canfield, that he drove a vehicle into the horse she was riding.

She was then throw off the horse and hit by the truck.

“The big issue is whether there was an intent to kill,” Weeks said.

He expects the guilt portion of the trial to be concluded before Thanksgiving with the punishment phase following, but “anything can happen to change that.”

Martin and Falk were working outside the Wynne Unit when Martin approached an officer and asked him to hold his broken watch.

As the officer reached for the watch, Falk distracted him with a sound, allowing Martin to grab the officer’s weapon.

Using the weapon to hold off nearby officers, the two offenders were able to scale a barbed-wire fence. After stealing a second weapon at gunpoint and exchanging fire with several nearby officers, they were able to commandeer a City of Huntsville truck.

While escaping, they rammed Canfield.

Canfield, who was on horseback, was thrown from her horse and was killed due to head injuries sustained when she struck the windshield of the truck and the ground. Her horse was later euthanized due to wounds from the collision and gunfire.

According to TDCJ reports following the incident, Martin was the driver of the vehicle when it struck Canfield.

Martin and Falk later dumped the truck a mile away and hijacked a motorist — Madilene Loosier — who was in line at a nearby bank drive-through.

Officers from several local agencies were able to shoot out the tires of the hijacked vehicle, leaving Martin and Falk to continue to flee on foot.

Falk was apprehended within an hour after the escape, while Martin was found hiding in a tree approximately three and a half hours later.