In the quiet early morning hours of April 5, 2018, the life of 43-year-old Andre Michael Martin was tragically cut short in the basement of his mother's home on Hilldale Place in Baltimore. What initially may have appeared to be a dispute gone wrong, soon unraveled into a calculated act of violence perpetrated by a family member.
That morning, police responded to a report of a shooting and discovered Andre Martin's body, bearing four gunshot wounds, in the basement where he lived.
Also present at the scene was his 23-year-old nephew, Santos Martin-Stanfield, who had suffered a single gunshot wound to his leg. The narrative presented by Martin-Stanfield was one of self-defense, a story that quickly crumbled under the scrutiny of the investigation.
The evidence revealed a far more sinister plot. Martin-Stanfield had arrived at his grandmother's house unexpectedly that night and went down to the basement with his uncle. The grandmother was later awakened by the sound of gunshots. Investigators concluded that Martin-Stanfield had shot his uncle multiple times and then intentionally shot himself in the leg in a deliberate attempt to mislead the police and fabricate a story of self-preservation.
Following his release from the hospital for his self-inflicted wound, Santos Martin-Stanfield was arrested and faced a litany of charges, including first and second-degree murder, assault, and handgun violations. In February 2019, he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of his uncle, Andre Martin. His attempt to cover up the crime having failed, he was sentenced to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended, followed by five years of probation.
