RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: Ben Matthew Martin given Life in Prison for setting homeless advocate John McGraham on fire in Downtown LA

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ben Matthew Martin given Life in Prison for setting homeless advocate John McGraham on fire in Downtown LA

Breaking News
By Randy Economy
www.Economy4ABC.Blogspot.com

(Source: Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office)

LOS ANGELES – It was a crime that even shocked a community that has become too familiar with brutal killings.

A 31-year-old man who was convicted of the arson death of a homeless person was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is lucky he didn't get the death penalty.

Ben Matthew Martin pleaded guilty on March 29 to one count each of first-degree murder, torture and arson causing great bodily injury in the dead of John Mc Graham (seen here).

Mc Graham, who was a homeless man and local advocate, died after Martin set him on fire while he slept on a Downtown Los Angeles sidewalk.
The case shocked homeless advocates and community leaders all over Los Angeles and dominated news wires for months when the crime took place.

Martin also admitted special circumstance allegations that the murder involved the infliction of torture and that the offense was accomplished by means of lying in wait.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose of the Target Crimes Division.

Before the murder, the defendant, who worked at a barbershop on 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, was involved in a series of incidents in which he verbally and physically abused homeless people who loitered near his place of employment, the prosecutor said in a sentencing memorandum.

Months before John McGraham’s killing, a barbershop customer witnessed Martin attacking the victim. The customer reported the incident to a barbershop employee. Martin was subsequently fired. Three months later, the defendant returned to exact his revenge, the prosecutor said.

On Oct. 9, 2008, Martin doused 55-year-old Mc Graham with gasoline and used a road flare to set him on fire. Martin was arrested on Jan. 22, 2009, in Riverside County by Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide detectives.

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Meet Randy Economy

You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ben Matthew Martin given Life in Prison for setting homeless advocate John McGraham on fire in Downtown LA

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