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match: a small town girl
who dreamed of running away.
There was no stability at home
and no stability in her life.
And a heavyweight boxer - who hoped his
fists would be their ticket out of town.
She sees this man who's strong, he's a boxer.
She's really attracted to that.
Bound by their obsession,
the couple embarked on a passion-charged road trip.
He was looking for companionship.
She was fueled by being with him and being
accepted by him.
But their romantic sojourn
would soon take a deadly detour.
The blood was just everywhere.
In order to solve the crime, investigators would
follow a bizarre trail...
Two solid months
of deadly crimes.
And determine how a collision of desires...
became a road map to a
cross-country killing spree.
Just a human crime wave
through United States.
What they found out
is they now had serial killers.
It's pretty unbelievable.
June 2nd 2007.
Slidell, Louisiana.
It was just before 7am
at a hotel on Gause Boulevard.
A security guard was doing rounds when he noticed a
broken windowpane outside of one of the hotel rooms.
He thought at first
that it was a
simple breaking and entering.
But when the guard opened the room's door - he
discovered much more than just a B&E.
The blood was just everywhere.
There was blood all over the wall; there was a
large puddle of blood on the floor.
But the blood was just the beginning.
He observed a victim lying on the bed,
and you can see a large puddle of
blood was right next to his head.
The guard immediately called local police.
When cops and EMTs arrived on the scene, they
realized the victim was still alive.
But just barely.
He didn't move but I could hear that he was breathing
very shallow.
But who was this man?
And what had happened to him?
A check of his pockets failed to turn up a wallet
or ID.
Which - combined with the ransacked crime scene -
suggested the man had been the victim of a savage
botched robbery.
There was a lamp that was broken it looks like he
was hit with.
But it would soon be clear
this was no simple break-in.
Rather, it was the first in a series of
shocking and gruesome crimes.
And when the authorities ultimately discovered who
was responsible - it would be the missing link in a
terrifying crime spree that would send shockwaves
across not just Louisiana, but the entire country.
Cut-Off, Louisiana:
a classic southern small town.
A place where the picket fences and quaint little
churches are about as postcard perfect as it gets.
A lot of waterways, recreation.
So it's a good place
to raise a family.
But for 18-year-old Coty Martinez,
life in Cut-Off was far from ideal.
Coty's parents divorced when she was two.
Her father quickly remarried - and focused
most of his attention on his new wife.
Coty and her sister went to live with their mother,
Brenda.
But she wasn't around much either - working months at
a time on a commercial freight boat.
In order to support them
the way I feel like they needed to be,
I put myself in a man's world and I went work offshore.
And by the time she was a teenager, the feelings of
neglect and abandonment Coty received from her
parents, started to result in some pretty serious
behavior issues.
There was no stability at home and no stability in
her life and she got into drugs at a very young age.
When Coty's mom eventually learned about her
daughter's wayward behavior,
she tried to intervene.
But the rebellious teenager
only rebelled more.
Coty began sneaking away from home at night.
And eventually dropped out of school at just age 16.
She got on drugs and alcohol,
and she quit school.
For the next few years, Coty basically drifted.
At least until she was 19, and met someone who seemed
to help get her life back on track.
She called me, and she let me know
that she had met somebody.
That somebody was a 34-year-old local man
named Shawn Martinez.
Unlike most people in Coty's life, Shawn was
attentive and sensitive.
And nurtured Coty in a way she'd never felt before.
He helped her get on the clean, straight and narrow
and she found a lot of comfort in that.
So much comfort that, despite their significant
age difference, Coty and Shawn got married after
only a few months of dating.
But no sooner had Coty said "I do," than her
marriage fell apart.
She found out that he had cheated on her the night
before the wedding.
Which completely devastated her and sent
her into a downward spiral.
At just 20 years old -
Coty's life was in shambles.
She filed for divorce, started working a series
of odd jobs just to scrape by, and began looking for
a way out of Cut-Off for good.
As fate would have it - it wasn't long after her
divorce finalized that Coty's cousin set her up
on a blind date with a young man who seemed to
have the means to make that dream come true:
27-year-old boxer, Jeremy Brooks.
A Louisiana native,
Jeremy also came from a small town.
And like Coty, he'd struggled to find his way
as a teenager.
When he was 16 he dropped out of school.
And his parents gave him the boot not long after.
Though once on his own, Jeremy did hone in
on one particular passion.
Jeremy spent time toning, working out, putting
effort into building a body.
By the time he reached his early 20s, all the hard
work Jeremy had put into the gym
was clearly on display.
He had bulk and a build
significantly above most people.
You're talking an individual approaching two
hundred and fifty pounds.
Eventually, Jeremy decided to try to make some money
off his muscular build.
And tried his hand at professional boxing.
When Jeremy won his debut fight with a first round
knockout - it seemed like it was a career decision
that would pay off.
We were there all of about four minutes
and he won the first match.
As Jeremy won more matches - his reputation as one of
Louisiana's premiere up-and-coming
prizefighters grew.
A reputation Coty found irresistible
when they first met.
She sees this man who's strong, he's a boxer.
She's really attracted to that.
Jeremy likewise was immediately drawn to
Coty's vibrant personality and petite body.
To the point that even though the couple had just
met, they couldn't keep
their hands off each other.
They were looking for companionship.
They were young and they were both attractive and
they filled each other's needs
immediately in every way.
Jeremy had a confidence and a swagger that
mesmerized Coty.
While Jeremy fed off of
Coty's unwavering adoration.
But what Jeremy and Coty learned they shared most
in common was an obsession with leaving their small
town lives in the rear view mirror.
Something they both hoped they could accomplish with
Jeremy's up-and-coming career.
On top of her attraction to Jeremy,
he was a hero of sorts to her
because he was winning money
as he won more boxing matches,
and this excited her, thrilled her.
She was attaching herself to a rising star.
Unfortunately, Jeremy's star ended up burning out
before it could rise any higher.
Jeremy's success in the ring had triggered a wave
of attention and notoriety
outside the boxing circuit.
And instead of putting time in the gym,
Jeremy started to party.
Hard.
It wasn't long before he developed a serious
addiction to methamphetamine.
He got more involved in the *** use.
He wasn't working out like he had previously.
As Jeremy slipped further into his drug addiction,
his career began to slide.
But while his boxing career might have been
against the ropes -
his relationship with Coty was not.
Coty was desperately in love.
She loved everything about him.
She intended to go nowhere.
But rather than help Jeremy curb his growing
addition, his methamphetamine habit
reawakened Coty's own demons.
It wasn't long before the one time drug user
started slipping - and joining Jeremy
on his crystal *** binges.
You've got two drug users together and it's only
going to get worse.
And it did get worse.
Strung out on drugs - Jeremy and Coty were
unable to hold down jobs.
And soon had to turn to friends and family
to not only get by -
but also fund their growing drug addiction.
But the couples freeloading and
hard-partying ride,
eventually came to an abrupt end.
Jeremy and Coty got threw out of her relative's
house for having a *** lab.
Kicked to the curb, and with nowhere to turn, the
outcast lovers decided it was time to do what they
both had dreamed of:
leave their small town lives behind.
Coty had a car and that's how they initially took
off, from Cut-off.
They had no plan.
They had no destination.
Little did anyone then know,
the couple's drug-fueled road trip
was about to take a sudden and violent detour.
Detectives in Slidell learn the truth behind the
mysterious hotel victim's brutal beating...
And the story they uncover will lead detectives
straight to Coty Martinez.
We don't know if she's a victim
or if she's a suspect in this.
In June of 2007, 28-year-old Coty Martinez
and her boyfriend - struggling boxer Jeremy
Brooks, had decided to put their floundering, small
town lives in the rear-view mirror and
embarked on a drug-fueled, cross-country road trip.
They had no plan.
They had nothing but each other
and this was all they needed.
But while the ***-addicted couple may
not have had a destination in mind, their road trip
wouldn't be without incident.
And after traveling for more than three days, the
couple would soon find themselves embroiled in
the center of a deadly scandal...
Slidell, Louisiana.
Police investigators were working a bizarre case:
earlier that morning, an unidentified man had been
discovered severely beaten and clinging to life
inside a local hotel room.
But when detectives checked the hotel's registry
- they discovered the name the room was rented under
clearly didn't belong to the victim.
We were able to establish
that a female had rented the room.
We found it was a Coty Martinez
that was from Cutoff, Louisiana.
But how was Coty connected to the beaten man in the
hotel room?
To investigators, the fact that Coty
was no longer on the scene
opened the door to two very different possibilities:
One was that Coty was somehow responsible for
the savage beating. And had gone on the run.
The other theory was that Coty was a second victim.
And had been kidnapped by the attacker.
We don't know at this point if she's a victim or
a, uh, suspect in this.
But investigators soon found evidence that shed
more light on one of those theories.
In addition to her name, Coty had left a copy of
her driver's license with the hotel's front desk.
The driver's license gives us
their height and weight.
According to Coty's license,
she was just 5'3 and 100 lbs.
We realize that her stature is just
way too small for somebody that could have beaten
our victim like had been done.
But if Coty wasn't the assailant, who was?
And - more importantly - where was she now?
Detectives called Coty's mother, Brenda
back in Cut-Off.
But Brenda claimed she hadn't seen nor heard from
her daughter since she split town with her
boyfriend, Jeremy - three days earlier.
We found out shortly after contacting her family that
she had a boyfriend that she was traveling with.
Her boyfriend was Jeremy Brooks
and he was kind of a big fellow.
He was at some point a fighter.
The information immediately piqued
detectives' interest.
They knew from Coty's drivers license that she
was far too small to have delivered the crushing
blows that put the hotel victim in a coma.
But Jeremy, with his massive frame and boxing
pedigree, was certainly capable of delivering
such a beat-down.
We kind of felt that it could be that he's
definitely involved some way or another.
Just then, detectives got a phone call
from the Slidell hospital.
According to hospital staff, the man who'd been
beaten inside the hotel room had not only survived
- he'd woken up.
Investigators rushed to the hospital - and found
that - despite a bruised face and fractured jaw -
the man was able to talk.
He identified himself as 50-year-old
Slidell resident, Jo Welch.
Jo Welch was a loner.
He was in and out of jobs.
Most people saw him as harmless.
According to Jo Welch, the incident that left him
beaten within an inch of his life,
began the previous evening.
He'd just bought a bottle of liquor from a nearby
store and was walking home - when he passed the hotel
on Gause Boulevard.
He was approached by a large white male and asked
if he wanted to go party.
He said they had some beer in there.
Jo said he wasn't normally one
to turn down free beer.
But he was hesitant to accept an offer
from a stranger.
That's when Jo claimed the man threw in something
else to sweeten the deal.
He says well would you like to meet
a young beautiful woman.
Mr. Welch said, "I'd love to."
He said, "Well come back to my room and we'll drink
a few beers and I'll introduce you to her."
Once they were back in the man's room,
Jo told police it looked as if
he was going to get what he was promised.
When he entered the room he saw a white female
laying on the bed a little provocative.
But after a few drinks, Jo said he began to get the
sneaking suspicion that something about the man
and woman's behavior was amiss.
Shortly after being in the room he realized that
something doesn't feel right that
I need to leave.
He described it as soon as he got up to leave he was
hit with a beer bottle.
Jo hit the floor.
Before he could figure out what happened, the man
who'd invited him back to the room
jumped on top of him.
And started raining down punches.
Jo Welch was bludgeoned, beaten with beer bottles
and also some of the objects in the room,
nightstands, lamps and so forth.
Before he passed out, Jo said he remembered the man
going through his pockets for any money he had -
which turned out to be just $20.
Asked if he knew the name of his attacker - or the
woman he was with - Jo said he didn't.
But before he blacked out,
he got a good look at both.
Police showed him Coty's drivers license photo - as
well as Jeremy's license photo
that the state also had on file.
Jo identified both without hesitation.
We asked him are you sure, positive?
Oh he said 100%.
But did that mean Coty was in on the attack?
Or was she merely Jeremy's unwitting accomplice?
To answer that question, police needed to track
Jeremy and Coty down as quickly as possible.
There was a federal
fugitive warrant for both
Brooks and Martinez.
But as eager as investigators were to
track the couple down.
Coty and Jeremy had virtually vanished.
That is until August 14th - when detectives received
a stunning break in the case.
We were contacted by an agency
in North Dakota.
The call came from a Sheriff's Department in
Drake, North Dakota - a rural farming community
more than 1600 miles from Slidell.
According to the Sheriff there, a local woman named
Rosie Kaibel had come forward with some
surprising information about the case.
The Drake Sheriff said it all began earlier that day
-- when Rosie Kaibel had been at her home, and
heard a knock at her door.
Rosie answered the door and there was a young
woman at the door who said she was very hungry.
Feeling sorry for the young woman, the Sheriff
said Rosie invited her in.
She fed her and took care of her, cleaned her up.
The young woman told Rosie
that her name was Kelly Smith.
She'd been traveling to Canada with her boyfriend.
But the two had become separated.
And Kelly had found herself hungry
and on her own.
She needs help.
She's a transient.
She made a phone call to the sheriff's office, who
in turn came and took her to a, a shelter.
But no sooner had the young lady left in a
deputy's car, than Rosie heard another
knock at her door.
This time it was a large young man.
Who claimed to be looking for his girlfriend.
He asked if she was there at Rosie's house.
And she said, no, that the sheriff's
office had picked her up
and had taken her somewhere.
He said, okay, thank you,
and turned around and left.
For some reason, it didn't feel right to Rosie.
Suspicious of both visits - the Sheriff said Rosie
decided to call her grandson - who in turn
came over and helped her check the internet to see
if they could possibly identify
the strange couple.
They visited a website
that listed federal fugitives.
And soon scrolled across a pair of familiar pictures.
She was looking at this wanted site on the
computer and said, "well that's the nice young lady
that was here."
Rosie realized they were wanted
for attempted *** in Louisiana.
Rosie Kaibel immediately notified the Sheriff.
And while one team of deputies went in search of
Jeremy, a second made a beeline for the shelter to
retrieve Coty.
When they arrived, Coty was no longer there.
But she hadn't gone far.
She walked down the street to the Lariat Bar.
Coty was finally in police custody.
Jeremy, on the other hand,
wasn't as easy to track down.
We continued two roving patrols in that area where
we felt Brooks was still hiding,
but Brooks was still at large.
For more than 12 weeks, Coty and Jeremy had been
inseparable - now one was behind bars, while the
other was on the run.
And their love - and loyalty - was about to be
put to the test.
Police put pressure on Coty.
But will she give up Jeremy's location?
And investigators are stunned when they learn of
another series of stops the couple made
on their savage road trip.
What they found out
is they now had serial killers.
August 15, 2007.
28-year-old Coty Martinez had just been arrested in
rural North Dakota for the vicious beating of a man
named Jo Welch in Slidell, Louisiana.
But her 27-year-old boyfriend and accomplice,
ex-heavyweight boxer Jeremy Brooks,
was still at large.
Brooks was a professional boxer
and could, uh, probably throw a
punch and knock regular guy out
with just one punch so we felt that he was dangerous.
With Coty in custody, investigators were hopeful
she'd not only tell them what led to the attack on
Jo Welch - but also help lead them to Jeremy's
current location.
But Coty wasn't willing to fold so easily.
In spite of the fact that Coty could have turned on
Jeremy immediately and saved herself a lot of
anguish, she remained loyal to Jeremy and did
not give him up.
That's when authorities trotted out the list of
charges Coty stood to face for her role in the crime
if she didn't cooperate.
Not only was she going to be charged for attempted
***, but also aiding and abetting.
That she was facing life
without the possibility of parole.
I'm sure her heart was pounding.
Apparently, Coty's heart was pounding hard enough
that she eventually agreed to talk.
But on one condition: she wanted a much lighter
sentence if she told them the whole story,
everything - leaving nothing out.
Once Coty had prosecutors' promise for a plea deal in
place, she shared her version of the events that
lead to the attack on Jo Welch in Slidell.
According to Coty - it all began around the time she
and Jeremy had been tossed out by their families.
They had no destination.
They were on just a big joy ride.
A joyride where the only goal according to Coty was
to travel from town to town and get high.
But Coty said Jeremy's drugs
didn't last very long.
In fact, by the time the couple drove through
Slidell, they had already burned through
Jeremy's entire supply.
And they were desperate to get their hands on more.
Coty said Jeremy decided they should pull over, use
what little cash they had to get a hotel room - and
find a target to rob for more drug money.
They just chose the easy way for them,
which was to steal from people.
Coty said that's when Jeremy saw Jo Welch
walk by the hotel.
He came up with the idea to lure Jo back to their
room with promises of free *** and sex.
Coty admitted she'd initially agreed to go
along with the plan - but she quickly had second
thoughts once Jo was knocked unconscious, and
Jeremy kept raining down blows.
You look at it.
It's outside the range of the
ordinary, if you want to call
it, robbery.
There is a lot of overkill there.
But while the attack on Jo had terrified her, the
thought of getting on Jeremy's bad side scared
her even more.
Especially after a threat he made shortly after they
fled the hotel room.
Brooks told Martinez
that he can snap and go and kill
her just the same as he kills
anybody else.
After that, Coty said she felt like she had no
choice but to stay with Jeremy.
So after they bought some more drugs with the $20
they stole from Jo Welch, the couple left Slidell
as criminals on the run.
Coty said they continued driving north until they
ran out of gas somewhere in Tennessee.
That's when Coty said they abandoned her car, and
started hopping trains until they ultimately
landed in Louisville, Kentucky.
When they got into Louisville they were
looking for food basically because they didn't want
to spend their
drug money on food.
So they went to one of the local soup kitchens.
It was at the Louisville soup kitchen that Coty
said she and Jeremy befriended one of the
kitchen's volunteers - 50-year-old Robert Elliot.
Mr. Elliott had been down on his luck at one time in
his life.
That's why he decided he wanted to volunteer at the
local homeless shelters and help people out, get
them back on their feet.
Coty claimed that Robert Elliot took a special
interest in them.
So much so, that he helped Jeremy
land a temporary job.
And even invited the couple to live with him in
his apartment while they got back on their feet.
But that invitation was rescinded just a week
later, when Robert came home to find Jeremy
getting high in his living room.
Coty said Robert told the couple to hit the road.
And that was all it took for Jeremy to snap.
He could turn on a dime.
That in turn triggered Brooks into a rampage.
Coty said Jeremy began to viciously punch
Robert Elliot with his fists -
just as he had with Jo Welch.
But this time, Coty claimed Jeremy took the
beating one step further.
He ended up murdering Robert Elliot,
beating him to death, strangling him.
Immediately thereafter he was covered in some sheets
and then contorted and stuffed
into the closet of his own house.
Coty said that Jeremy then made the decision that the
couple would lay low for the next few days in
Elliot's apartment.
But they soon were overwhelmed by the
grotesque smell emanating from the closet.
The decision to leave Robert Elliot's apartment
was because they were disturbed by the odor of
the putrefaction of the man's own body.
But the couple had two problems:
After spending all of Robert Elliot's money on drugs,
they had no cash or vehicle.
So Coty said she and Jeremy went in search of a
new target who had both.
Leaving Robert Elliot's apartment, she and Jeremy
followed the railroad tracks to the posh
River Road area of Louisville.
It is one of the most exclusive and expensive
neighborhoods in the city.
Once there, the couple honed in on 69-year-old
Patrick O'Dea - who had just parked his car
along the riverfront.
Once again, Coty said Jeremy decided to use her
as bait.
Coty Martinez approached Patrick O'Dea alleging
that Mr. Brooks had lost his wallet in the woods.
Patrick O'Dea was the kind of guy who
wanted to help everybody.
Coty said she led Patrick O'Dea
several yards into the woods.
That's when she claimed Jeremy took over.
After punching O'Dea in the face, Jeremy dragged
the dazed man out of Coty's sight
to a nearby trail.
After awhile Jeremy returned.
Without Patrick O'Dea.
With Patrick O'Dea dead,
the couple took what they were after.
They took his wallet, took his car keys and took the
car and took off.
Investigators were stunned with Coty's statement.
Especially considering that - up to this point -
they had no evidence connecting the couple to
the murders of Robert Elliot or Patrick O'Dea.
Imagine the surprise that came to the law
enforcement guys in North Dakota.
They thought that they were capturing two people
who were only charged with attempted *** in
Slidell, Louisiana, but what they found out is
they now had serial killers.
But was Coty's story even true?
Was she really an unwitting accomplice??
Or was she more involved in Jeremy's crimes than
she let on?
Before investigators could answer those questions,
they'd learn that Coty's statement about her and
Jeremy's twisted joyride wasn't over.
Coty's tale of the couple's murderous road trip
reaches its terrifying conclusion.
But not before the manhunt for Jeremy Brooks reaches
its boiling point...
He kills people with his bare hands.
What's going to happen
when they get him cornered?
When lonely and lovelorn Coty Martinez ran away
with handsome boxer Jeremy Brooks, she thought she'd
found the man she could spend the
rest of her life with.
But just 2 months later, Coty found herself in
police custody for the savage beating of a man
named Jo Welch in Slidell, Louisiana.
While Jeremy, her suspected accomplice, was
still on the run.
When questioned by police, Coty had admitted she and
Jeremy had mugged Jo Welch for drug money to satisfy
their growing *** addiction.
But she stunned investigators when she
revealed that the couple were also responsible for
two more shocking murders in Kentucky, as part of a
two month long, drug-fueled crime spree.
Though, to hear Coty tell it, she was more Jeremy's
hostage than his co-conspirator.
But blaming her boyfriend for two murders - and a
near third - wasn't the most surprising part of
Coty's confession.
Instead, it was what she said she and Jeremy did
after they killed Patrick O'Dea in Louisville and
headed north in his car.
According to Coty, she and Jeremy had enough gas to
get them as far as Minneapolis.
And when they ran empty, they ditched the car and
hopped a train.
They then traveled west through Minneapolis until
they got to Wright County.
It was in Wright County that Coty said the couple
jumped off the train - and Jeremy decided they should
go in search of some more cash and a new vehicle.
At some point they encountered a farmhouse,
Ruth Ouverson's property.
Eyeing an opportunity to rob and kill a 4th victim
for more drug money, Coty claimed Jeremy came up
with another plan where she was
forced to act as bait.
Coty approached the individual, knocked on the
door was pleading for help, asking the person
telling them that she was destitute.
But Coty said Ruth Ouverson never got a
chance to respond.
That was enough of an overture to keep the door
open long enough and then Mr. Brooks bursts in.
Once inside the home, Coty claimed Jeremy launched
into what had become a familiar and deadly
pattern of events.
The *** of Miss Ouverson was very similar
to that of Mr. Elliott and Mr. O'Dea.
Ruth Ouverson died of ligature strangulation and
asphyxiation, has multiple blunt force trauma
inflicted to her head.
They took her credit cards, clothing, money and
her car, and they proceeded to leave
Minnesota through North Dakota.
Just as before, Coty claimed she'd been
sickened by Jeremy's savage brutality.
But out of fear for her own life - she'd felt she
had little choice but to go along with him.
Coty claimed she and Jeremy drove Ruth
Ouverson's car north until it ran low on fuel.
That's when Coty said the couple ditched
the vehicle and began traveling through
North Dakota by foot.
Until they came across Rosie Kaibel's farmhouse
in McHenry County.
They were going through their same routine of Coty
going to the door of a home that
seemed to be isolated.
She was going to check it out, make sure there were
no men, that it would be safe, and Jeremy was going
to go on and follow up and attack.
Coty said she did her part and knocked on
Rosie's front door.
But when Rosie answered, Coty claimed Jeremy missed
his cue.
When Cody went to Rosie's door the plan was for
Jeremy, as soon as she gave him the signal, that
was his cue to come on.
Jeremy never showed up.
And, that left Cody to wonder what's going on.
It was Jeremy's slip up that gave Rosie Kaibel
enough time to call the authorities - which
ultimately lead to the couples split
and Coty's apprehension.
Following Coty's confession, investigators
doubled down on their efforts
to find Jeremy Brooks.
Now the chase is on.
But flushing a seasoned fugitive like Jeremy
Brooks out of rural North Dakota farmland turned out
to be no easy task.
The area that he was in there a lot of
people that own 160 acres.
I mean, it's, it's vast, you know.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Fearful Jeremy might slip through their grasp,
detectives doubled back to Coty for help.
Who, despite the couple's twisted romantic history,
told investigators about an escape plan Jeremy had
once shared with her if the couple ever
needed to evade police.
Brooks' MO was to burn something and then move on
according to Martinez.
The purpose was to get a distraction to escape.
One day later, when a fire broke out on a nearby
farm, law enforcement was quick to jump into action.
We closed in that perimeter.
Investigators soon got word from their helicopter
patrol officer, that Jeremy Brooks had been
spotted in the middle of a crop field.
Swat teams were mobilized.
Moments, later, officers cautiously closed in on
Jeremy's position.
He is a former professional boxer.
He's huge.
He kills people with his bare hands.
He is a very dangerous man, and what's going to
happen when they get him cornered?
But after more than two and a half months on the
run, the former prizefighter turned ***
suspect didn't put up a fight.
He surrendered peacefully.
He was cold and hungry.
He was pretty happy to see a warm blanket.
Jeremy might have been happy enough to finally
have a warm blanket and a hot meal, but when
investigators sat down with Jeremy, he claimed to
have no idea what all the fuss was about.
Eventually Jeremy claimed he was mentally unstable.
And couldn't remember any of his or
Coty's alleged crimes.
But while Jeremy was playing dumb,
investigators in Minnesota and Kentucky soon found
more evidence connecting both he and Coty to the
couples shocking crime-spree.
When Jeremy Brooks was working for that company
that Robert Elliott had set the job up with him he
had put his thumbprint on a check.
He had also put his thumbprint in the
Minnesota victim's car and so police were able to
match those two thumbprints, and that's
how they got Jeremy Brooks for the murders.
Jeremy and Coty were using their victims' money,
credit cards, things of that nature, and they were
being caught on video footage.
Which, when combined with Coty's statement, meant
prosecutors in Kentucky, Minnesota, Louisiana, and
North Dakota, had more than enough evidence to
charge Jeremy with three counts of *** and one
count of attempted ***.
Coty, meanwhile, had been promised a plea
arrangement in exchange for her testimony that
tied the couple to all four crimes.
They did extend to Coty an opportunity to begin
talking to them and not use
the statement against Coty.
Jeremy Brooks, however, had no such deal in place.
Prosecutors planned to extradite him back to
Kentucky first to stand trial for the murders of
Robert Elliot and Patrick O'Dea.
Where, if convicted, he'd face a severe punishment.
Brooks was facing a lethal injection in Kentucky.
Coty Martinez is faced with an agonizing choice:
Stand by her lover.
Or accept the prosecution's plea deal -
and send Jeremy to death row.
She's got to sign the death ticket for
the man she loves.
In August of 2008, prosecutors were working
to extradite Jeremy Brooks back to Kentucky to go on
trial for the savage beating and strangulation
murders of Patrick O'Dea and Robert Elliot.
If convicted, Jeremy faced some pretty
stiff consequences.
Jeremy Brooks was clearly eligible for the death
penalty in Kentucky.
The cornerstone of the prosecution's case against
Jeremy was the anticipated testimony of his former
lover and partner on their deadly road trip -
Coty Martinez.
She was able to put pieces together.
It was crucial to get her testimony.
But Coty would never get a chance to testify
against her ex-lover.
When Jeremy Brooks found out the death penalty was
on the table he didn't want any part of it.
Before the extradition order could be finalized,
Jeremy had his attorneys reach out to Kentucky
prosecutors to arrange a plea deal for the murders
of both Patrick O'Dea and Robert Elliot.
Our chief elected prosecutor at the time,
together with me, made the decision that it was worth
it to give up our chance to have a jury decide the
death penalty so that all those families could walk
away knowing that the individual had been
apprehended, he had received his punishment
and was sent and serving on it all within a matter
of weeks after the crime.
As part of his agreement, Jeremy also pled guilty to
Ruth Ouverson's *** in Minnesota.
As well as the attempted *** of
Jo Welch in Louisiana.
It was the swift justice of putting him in prison
for the rest of his life with no possibility of
parole on all those cases.
But even with Jeremy behind bars for life,
prosecutors still had one unresolved issue to deal with:
the fate of Jeremy's ex-lover and accomplice,
Coty Martinez.
In exchange for cooperation, Coty had been
assured a plea deal for a reduced sentence.
Prosecutors ultimately made good on their promise.
Though many didn't believe that Coty was the helpless
victim she claimed to be.
But rather a willing accomplice - eager to do
anything to please her psychopathic lover.
It's hard to know if she was really a victim if she
was along for the ride because she was afraid of
him or if she was turned on by the fact that
he was so aggressive.
On November 5th, 2008, Coty Martinez pled guilty
to felony aid and abetting *** in the second degree.
And was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
To some, it seemed Coty got off pretty light for
admittedly being involved in four horrific crimes.
She was convicted or pled guilty
to attempted ***.
She was an active participant in three other
murders, so now Cody will be out and free
at about the age of 60.
Though others felt that Coty's reduced sentence
was far better than the alternative.
I believe that Brooks would have killed again if
he would have gotten away, and I believe that our
manhunt was made easier by Martinez's cooperation.
But whether or not justice was served, those closest
to the case have had a difficult time
comprehending just how two young lovers could end up
committing such a heinous crime-spree.
I think these two liked being on the run.
I think they were somehow fueled by it.
They liked to hop trains, steal cars, hurt people.
When you add the two together they just kind of
as a mixture just turned very violent.