The ex-wife of a 25-year-old man who killed his father with a samurai sword to get $2.5 million in life insurance has been jailed for attempting to cover up the crime.
Candace Martin, 27, has been jailed for four years after a judge found the mother had deliberately misled police months after her ex father-in-law was murdered.
Justice Hamill said she was participating in an ‘extraordinary web of deceit’ and giving statements ‘littered with lies,’ Sunshine Coast Daily reports.
Crown prosecutor Brendan Campbell suggested that Mrs Martin’s (pictured) statement depicted Michael Jnr as a ‘monster’
He admitted that her aiding Michael Phillip Martin Jnr was not entirely about keeping her first love out of jail, but also to get her stake in the million-dollar claim.
For the crimes of attempted murder of her ex father-in-law on April 7, 2014, and accessory to murder after June 13, 2014, Candace was sentenced to a total of nine years jail with a four-year non-parole period.
Ms Martin had previously admitted to learning her ex-husband had tried to kill his father once before by injecting him with blood, bile and faeces.
Mrs Martin claims she found ‘putrid smelling’ syringes filled with a fungal-green coloured liquid in her ex-husband’s sock drawer just days after his father developed septicaemia and had a cardiac arrest in hospital, The Northern Star reports.
Michael Martin Junior, 28, (pictured) made an emotional plea to find his father’s killer, but was later charged with the murder
Mrs Martin (pictured) claims she found ‘putrid smelling’ syringes filled with a fungal-green coloured liquid in her ex-husband’s sock drawer just days after his father developed septicaemia and had a cardiac arrest in hospital
The syringes were found, and later disposed of in a lit fireplace, in May 2014 – just a month before Michael Snr was murdered.
Crown prosecutor Brendan Campbell suggested that her statement depicted Michael Jnr as a ‘monster.’
Michael Phillip Martin told police his father, Michael Anthony Martin, was killed by home invaders after being found by a neighbour tied up in South Murwillumbah, northeastern New South Wales.
Investigators later discovered Martin Junior had taken out three life insurance policies online, worth $2.5 million, against his 46-year-old father for an ‘accidental death.’
Michael Martin Senior, pictured, survived an attack in May 2014 but was killed just weeks later at his South Murwillumbah home on the NSW north coast
Ms Martin has also revealed she saw her ex-husband grinding off the tip of his samurai sword in their garden shed after the murder, which had a ‘red sheeny stain’ on the blade.
Michael Junior went on to break the sword up into pieces, ‘dipping it in acid and dumping it’ in a Coles bag.
A Supreme Court jury in Lismore on Wednesday found Martin Jnr guilty of attempted murder, murder, and grievous bodily harm with intent.
Police believe Martin Junior had been driven by hate, built up from years of abuse as a child, to kill his father for the payout.
Michael Martin Junior has claimed he was forced to listen while father was killed
Investigators discovered he had three life insurance policies worth $2.5 million
The jury had been shown a letter Martin Junior sent to his ex-wife Candace after the murder.
‘Money got tighter and we had another bright idea to free our lives up more… you and I would finally be able to have the things in life we ever wanted,’ he said, 9 News reported.
‘Twenty-five years of torture from these people led me to do the unthinkable.’
He wrote that he was a very hurt man, who had been through so much from someone who should have been his number one supporter.
The jury were not swayed by Martin Junior’s claims he was mentally unstable when he penned the letter or his recount of his recorded police interview.
Martin Junior will face a sentence hearing on November 3.
The jury had been shown a letter Martin Junior sent to his wife Candace after the murder
Martin Junior, 25, was found guilty of murdering his father with a samurai sword