OCEAN CITY – One half of a Virginia couple arrested in April for motor vehicle theft of a truck allegedly stolen from a funeral home and cemetery after a license plate reader on the Route 50 bridge alerted resort police pleaded guilty to multiple counts last week and was sentenced to a combined 10 years in jail.
Around 2:15 a.m. on April 15, Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officers patrolling in the downtown area got a ping from a license plate reader on the Route 50 bridge about a stolen Ford Ranger pickup truck entering the resort. Ocean City Communications reported the truck had been reported stolen out of Virginia.
OCPD officers observed the vehicle traveling north on Baltimore Avenue as it drove through a red traffic signal, according to police reports. OCPD officers conducted a high-risk traffic stop in the parking lot of a hotel at 15th Street and made contact with the driver, identified as Sean Martin, 35, of Winchester, Va., and his passenger, identified as Kelsi Turner, 20, of Front Royal, Va., who were both detained in handcuffs.
Martin reportedly told police he had purchased the truck a week earlier in Pennsylvania from an individual he did not know through a social media marketplace site. Martin reportedly told police he paid $500 for the truck, but the seller did not have the title and he did not have a receipt with him. Martin told officers he “should have known better” than to buy a truck from a stranger for $500. Martin also told police he did not have a valid driver’s license and that he was a convicted felon from Virginia, according to police reports.
OCPD officers interviewed Turner, who reportedly told police she had taken her father’s vehicle to pick up Martin and taken him to a farm in West Virginia so he could buy a truck. Turner advised an individual gave Martin the keys to the truck, and that she had seen Martin sign a receipt, but she had never seen the actual receipt or any title to the vehicle.
Turner told resort police she returned her father’s vehicle and she and Martin then traveled in the truck from West Virginia to Virginia and then from Pennsylvania to Ocean City, because they had never been to the resort and wanted to see the beach, according to police reports.
Turner reportedly told police she had become suspicious about how Martin had acquired the vehicle but did not ask any questions or think any further about it other than it might have been stolen because of the suspicious circumstances, according to police reports.
OCPD officers contacted law enforcement in Virginia, who advised the truck had been reported stolen three days before from Rinker and Frye Memorial Inc., a funeral and cemetery company. The owner of the truck said it had been on a trailer and had last been seen on April 11, according to police reports.
OCPD officers reportedly cleared the truck to be empty and safe, and detected an odor of marijuana coming from the passenger compartment. Also, in the passenger compartment was located a silver handgun partially concealed in a black sock. The handgun was loaded with a magazine containing 10 live cartridges of .45-caliber ammunition, although there was not a cartridge loaded in the chamber, according to police reports.
The Maryland Gun Center advised Martin was a convicted felon prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition. Martin was placed under arrest at that point for the theft of the truck. During a search of his person, OCPD officers located more ammunition along with an eyeglass case containing a crystal substance Martin characterized as bath salts. OCPD officers also located several baggies of the same substance in an amount suggesting distribution, according to police reports.
OCPD officers reportedly noticed the gray truck and been splashed around the exterior with black and orange paint. Martin reportedly told officers he bought the paint in Pennsylvania and splashed it on the exterior of the truck to “make it look like Halloween,” according to police reports.
Martin was charged with numerous counts including motor vehicle theft, and multiple weapons and drug distribution charges. Turner was also charged with motor vehicle theft because of her conflicting stories about how Martin had acquired the vehicle and her suspicions that it was stolen, according to police reports.
Last week, he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced to five years on that count. He also pleaded guilty to firearm possession with a felony conviction and was sentenced to 10 years for that count, five of which was suspended. The remaining five of that sentence will be served consecutive to the possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine for a net 10 years. Martin was also sentenced to three years for unlawful motor vehicle taking, which will be served concurrently to the firearm possession count.
For her part, Turner was charged following the incident with unlawful motor vehicle taking and theft under $25,000. She was scheduled for trial in June but failed to appear. Her trial has now been set for September 28.
