It is exhausting for most of the people to imagine {that a} boxer identified for knocking out 32 of 49 warring parties might be the sufferer of home violence, however that’s what Christy Salters-Martin lived to inform a jury and CBS Information contributor David Begnaud. Her husband attempted to kill her, she says, however she refused to die. “I informed him, ‘You can’t kill me,’ and I supposed it. Identical to the solar got here up this morning, I supposed it.”
“Christy Martin – The Combat of Her Existence,” reported via Begnaud for “48 Hours,” is streaming on Paramount +.
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Christy Salters-Martin says she is an suggest for girls in abusive relationships on account of what she survived. On Nov. 23, 2010, after 19 years of marriage, Christy says she was once sitting on her mattress hanging on her trainers when her husband, Jim Martin, entered the bed room armed with a knife and gun.
About an hour later, Christy controlled to flag down a stranger on her side road in Apopka, Florida, who rushed her to a close-by emergency room. Christy have been stabbed 4 occasions within the chest, her left lung was once punctured, her left leg was once lower to the bone, and there was once a bullet lodged 3 inches from her middle.
She says she was once in a position to stand up off the ground and break out when Jim made up our minds to take a bath. “I would like to look the glance on his face when he were given out of the bathe, got here again to the room and I used to be long past.”
Whilst medical doctors labored to save lots of Christy’s existence, Jim Martin disappeared. Police discovered him seven days later no longer a long way from the crime scene. Martin, who nonetheless had the knife used to stab Christy, declared himself blameless. He stated he was once the sufferer of a vicious assault via his spouse and ran in worry to a neighbor’s shed, the place he says he slipped out and in of awareness till simply sooner than police canines discovered him.
Martin’s protection lawyer Invoice Hancock tells Begnaud that his consumer was once a loving and trustworthy husband who would by no means have attacked his spouse. “There isn’t convincing proof on this case, past an affordable doubt that Mr. Martin supposed to kill Christy,” he says.
Orange County prosecutors Ryan Vescio and Deborah Barra disagree. They imagine Jim was once the heavyweight within the marriage and that he became a champion boxer into an abused spouse. Vescio describes Martin as manipulative, merciless and controlling: “Jim’s regulate and abuse resulted in mental abuse, bodily abuse. … He began to supply her with managed components and … put Christy in an excessively compromised place to the place she needed to depend on Jim or else her occupation could be over.”
Christy Salters met Jim Martin when she was once simply 22 and he was once 47. She was once a rarity — a promising feminine boxer. He was once a well-regarded trainer and, whilst Martin did not imagine that ladies belonged within the boxing ring, he agreed to coach the younger phenom. Christy says Jim noticed buck indicators. “He idea … ‘It is going to be a sideshow, however I believe I will be able to get her able the place we will be able to make some cash,'” she tells Begnaud.
As the 2 grew nearer, the connection became romantic. A yr later, they had been married, however in keeping with Christy, it was once extra industry partnership than love tale. She additionally says it was once a strategy to after all please her folks, who had spent years looking to flip her into somebody she isn’t.
Christy was once within the 5th or 6th grade when she says she discovered she was once a lesbian. “Did you open up to any individual?” asks Begnaud. “No,” says Christy, no longer till she met highschool sweetheart Sherry Lusk. Christy attempted to stay her relationship existence a secret, however her folks ultimately came upon and their disapproval driven her from the circle of relatives house. Jim Martin knew all of that and extra, and Christy says he used it to regulate her. “He would all the time say, ‘I am gonna inform the sector you are a lesbian.’ And for no matter reason why, you understand, I simply wasn’t robust sufficient in me to mention, ‘Pass forward.’ I do know that individuals assume that I will have to be robust and difficult and all the ones issues. However … I did not have that very same form of psychological power to overhaul him.” Christy says she lived in worry of her husband’s threats to show or kill her if she ever left him, so she stayed. Simply days sooner than the assault, figuring out it could motive a life-or-death fight, Christy says she after all informed Jim Martin she was once leaving him for her highschool sweetheart, Sherry.
“I believe it is a outstanding tale as a result of you could have a world-famous champion boxer and she or he may nonetheless be in a home violence courting,” says prosecutor Deborah Barra. “As a result of that’s not about bodily power. It is about psychological abuse.”
Barra and Vescio say they absolutely anticipated Jim Martin to plead no longer accountable via reason why of self-defense. On the time of the assault, Jim Martin was once 66 years outdated and had lately had middle surgical operation. Christy was once 42 and coaching for a large comeback battle. Pleading self-defense in opposition to a certified boxer was once Martin’s perfect shot at successful, says Vescio. A jury would possibly imagine that Christy was once the larger danger — person who had required over the top power.
In his interview with Ryan Vescio, Begnaud set the level for the trial that the prosecutor calls probably the most memorable of his occupation: “Christy was once the boxer. Jim was once the opponent. The jury was once the target market. And the pass judgement on was once the referee.” Vescio answered: “And what was once probably the most fascinating factor was once, Christy had all the time mentioned she sought after to win 50 fights in her existence. Neatly, Christy gained 49 skilled boxing suits in her occupation. That court docket was once the fiftieth battle.”
Christy sees it in a different way, “In spite of everything, I’ve been in a position to return to phrases with, I were given the fiftieth win, once I were given up off the ground November 23, 2010, and were given out of my space. That was once my fiftieth win.”
In 2012, Jim Martin was once discovered accountable of tried homicide, however no longer pre-meditated, and sentenced to twenty-five years.
On Nov. 26, 2024, Jim Martin died in custody. He was once 80 years outdated.
For those who or somebody you understand wishes assist, name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 [SAFE].
