Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Judge Locks Up High School Sweetheart Strangler

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Blake Linkous, 20, pleaded guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend, Natalie Martin, on a high school graduation trip in June 2023. Linkous and Martin were from Ohio and traveled to Myrtle Beach with a group for the trip. Martin's father and best friend spoke about their loss as Linkous pleaded guilty on the day his trial was set to begin. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the emotional hearing in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Today, after 635 days, is finally the day that our family, our friends, and our community have prayed for. Today is the day justice will be served. An Ohio man admits to murdering his ex-girlfriend on their high school graduation trip to Myrtle Beach, Natalie Martin's father, addressing his daughter's murderer. And her lips were blue because she was dead. Because Blaine Winkus wrapped his greasy, cowardly hands around her neck and he strangled her like a... I go through the emotional hearing and the South Carolina judge's decision

to sentence Blake Linkus to decades behind bars. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. On the day that his murder trial was set to begin, 20-year-old Blake Linkus pleaded guilty to one count of murder nearly two years after he took the life of his ex-girlfriend, Natalie Martin. This happened when they were on a graduation trip in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Natalie was a beautiful 18-year-old girl who had just graduated from Philo High School in Ohio in May of 2023. Natalie and Blake had started dating when they were sophomores. They were high school sweethearts. But they broke up before graduation after Blake shoved Natalie during an

argument. As Blake Linkus appeared in court and pleaded guilty to murder, the prosecutor went over the timeline and what was going on in the weeks leading up to Natalie's murder. If we go back to May 5th, this happened June 6th, back in May 5th, you hear the residual effects of this push incident that resulted in the breakup. And just like this text, Ms. Martin and says, quote, if you hate me so much, I just want you to try to find someone else so I can beat their ass and feel a lot better about it. That's a common theme you see about a jealousy controlling situation and the run-up to this.

In the course of Mr. Linkus' statement, he says he was mad at her because she was texting another boy down her road page, and that's what he brought to his anger, to say the same thing. The solicitor in Horry County, South Carolina, said that Linkus had a jealous streak. He was controlling and insecure. There were text messages found on Natalie's phone that raised concern. names and sauce and everything else. I don't know about that, but I am honestly unbothered by your ignorance anymore because I have tried to help you and show you what is right and what is wrong and what is okay and what is not okay. And I have come to the

group to realize that it is impossible and you will always do you. Your actions are not okay at all and it's annoying, but I'm over-responsive. All I have to say is if you want a happy life, you need to fix your shit. But I'm done with it, and I can't help you anymore. I don't need your kumana or your babies. I'll be just fine.

Please do not bother me at all today. I do not want to talk to you at all. Please respect that. If you cannot, I will absolutely lock you in on everything. And if you get any of your friends to try to ask me, I will lock them in on everything as well. Please stop her asking for a friend, because it's annoying for her as well. And this is her loss, and she has to sit there while you treat me like that, and be in the middle of it. It's so embarrassing when you do that. And you can go on and on about this and make sure that you're not as trashed at all.

I just want to let the world please me stay. But that was two weeks before we just ran out of debt funds. I want to tell you about a free app that I've tried called Upside. It gives you actual cash back on things that you buy each day, like gas, groceries, and takeout.

Upside gives you real money that you can transfer straight into your bank account. When I pump gas or go to Dunkin' Donuts for a drink, I use Upside and I've even used it when ordering pizza on the app. Here's how it works. Download Upside, claim an offer for whatever you're buying, and pay as usual using a debit or credit card. Follow the steps and get paid. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside or scan that QR code that you see right there on your screen and use our promo code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for an extra 25 cents back on your first gallon of gas. Despite their breakup, Blake and Natalie went on the graduation trip to Myrtle Beach with other friends. On June 6, 2023, the group of students attended an event and on the

way back to the hotel where they were all staying, Blake opened up to the group about how he wasn't doing well post-breakup. He told the group that he didn't want to live without Natalie and even mentioned how he tried to take his own life. That night, Natalie was found dead on the floor of the hotel room. According to the prosecutor, the two got into a heated argument over her texting another guy. Blake spent hours in the hotel room with Natalie's body after strangling her. In order for the judge to accept Blake Linkus' guilty plea, she needed to ask him a series of questions about the decision. What were your disagreements with the facts? What were your disagreements? guilty plea. She needed to ask him a series of questions about the decision. jury trial do you understand that we have panel ready and still ready that the court can qualify

and select a jury if it is your desire to report with the jury trial and knowing all of that you wish to waive your right to a jury trial do you understand the question do you want a jury trial or do you not want a jury trial okay so do you waive your right to a jury trial? Yes, ma'am. Are there any deals the court has not been told about? No. Have you been satisfied with your attorney? Yes, ma'am. Has he done everything you've asked or expected? Yes, ma'am.

Any complaints about the services? No. Has anyone promised you anything to plead guilty? No, ma'am. Has anyone threatened or forced you? No, ma'am. Are you pleading guilty freely, involuntarily, and on your own will? Yes, ma'am.

Have you understood my questions? Yes, ma'am. Do you need to ask any questions? Yes, ma'am. Have you been truthful? Yes, ma'am. Do you understand that you have the right to appeal this guilty plea in sentence? Yes, ma'am.

Do you understand you have to do that in writing within ten days of today? Yes, ma'am. Do you understand that if you cannot afford to turn it to that process, it won't be appointed to you at no cost? I find there's a substantial factual basis for the plea that the defendant has entered the plea freely, voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently with the advice and assistance of counsel that is indicated to the court to satisfy and court qualifies the plea. Anything further from the state? Then it was time for Judge Deidre Jefferson to hear from members of Natalie's family. They had traveled to South Carolina prepared for a trial, but instead, Blake Linkus pleaded guilty.

Natalie's father, Jesse Martin, talked about the pain of losing his daughter and then Blake Linkus being let out on bail as he awaited trial. that. He'll be going home a year or two later. He's got a slant into the gavel and he says, you know, for the price of a new SUV, you know, your daughter's murder can go on for the next 635 days. 635 days he's been living his life running around with whatever he wants to do i'm not here to argue about policies and procedures and all proceedings in the state of south korea but you know the reason he was dragged on by judge I think my daughter would make a difference, but whether it was why. 635 days, that's two Father's Days, that's two Thanksgivings, that's two Christmases, it's an Easter, and particularly a pain in the mother's head. 635 days of every

day we wake it up and decide, is this the day that I don't care about the judicial system? Is this the day that I don't care about consequences anymore? Because it doesn't feel like anybody else does.

635 days of that is impacting the daughter. It's impacting your mental health, your state of mind, Natalie's father told Judge Jefferson that he's only left with memories of Natalie and they're not all good. And, you know, in my mind, I got a slideshow of that play of just time with my daughter. Thoughts, positive moments with my daughter. thoughts, positive moments with my heart. And I say slideshow because it's like it flashes in front of your eyes, you know.

You've got this moment, that moment, that moment. And no matter what, the beginning or the end of that slice of your arm is when I last saw her. That was in her coffin. She looked beautiful as always, but she looked sad and her lips were a little bit blue. The reason that she was sad and her lips were blue, because she was dead. Because Blaine Winkus wrapped his greasy, cowardly hands around her neck, and he strangled her like that. And then somebody after that,

the state of South Carolina said, let's let this guy go home. I can't even put the price on a used SUV. Let's let him go home. Boy, 635 days. Thank goodness we're here today jesse martin then told the judge about what he'd like to see happen to blake linkus you know i think what's happened has happened there's nothing that you want to do or say here that's going to make you feel any better you don't let me smell his hair burn that's what i want that's what me happy. But we're not here to make anybody happy.

You ask this gentleman what he recommends, I don't want you to ask him what he recommends. I want you, you owe the people of South Carolina, you owe the citizens and taxpayers of Horry County, you owe them, you know, the knowledge to know that the judicial system has their back. Because right now, from where I'm standing, it hasn't helped them. You need to be sending an example, sending a message to criminals, to law-abiding citizens and criminals alike, you know, that we're going to do what's right. In 635 days of my daughter's murder out running around in Ohio,

I don't know what people are worried about, but that doesn't matter. That doesn't add up. So I'm asking you, you know, 40 years, 35 years, none of that means anything to me. I want you to sentence somebody that wraps their hands around an innocent woman's neck and strangles her to me. I want you to sentence somebody that wraps her hands around a innocent woman's neck and strangles her to death. I want you to sentence them how you see it for you. That's all I have. Then Natalie's best friend, Brooklyn Farrell, spoke. She talked about the beautiful best friend that she'll never see again. still laboring from the second winter season without you.

Soon, I will be hunting turkeys with your dad and planting flowers on your grave with your mom, which are all things you love to do. Your mom has become my best friend. I see you in her every day. From her laugh to her strength, she reminds me of you. I often wonder what could have been you and I. But you see, my fate is up to me, but your fate was up to a set of hands proud of our neck. Our 12 12 year friendship was stripped away by the bare hands of someone else 635 days ago. On June 6, 2023, not only your life was taken, but most of mine was too.

That day will forever be embedded into my brain. I vividly remember crying so hard and so long that my eyes were practically swollen shut. Knowing that I would never get back even a breath of time that I had forgotten what it was like to be immensely full of true happiness. But remembering who you were as a person has helped me to wake up every day and make something of myself. You are inspiring, caring, 50, help-going. But more importantly, you were my best friend.

You were the one to be there for me and walk alongside me through every footstep of life. I believe that is what I miss about you most. Your presence. How on any day I could look over in the seat beside me and see your piercing eyes and breathtaking long hair, looking back at me and sharing our hurtful laugh. I would do anything to hear your laugh one last time. Now the only thing that I have left of you is our memories of this necklace I wear, which holds the ashes of your once full of life body.

No goodbye text, goodbye call, or goodbye mug. It's crazy how much my life has changed without you here. The loneliness that creeps beside me, echoing at a distance every day. How we went from talking and joking about making our own TV show to now my phone lighting up from messages of news broadcasters

wanting to make a documentary of your murder. And then Brooklyn asked Judge Jefferson to sentence Blake Liggus to life without parole. I truly believe that these feelings will never fully go away. But today, after 635 days, is finally the day that our family, our friends, and our community have prayed for. Today is the day justice will be served. Justice. Justice for you, your life, and everything you never got the chance to become. We love you.

Throughout school, something Natalie and I did was write each other letters and pass them off to one another in the hallways. I still have every letter Natalie ever gave me. As I sat in an empty hotel room last night, tears flooding from my face, I timed approximately how long it would take me to read this to you today. In total, it took me about three and a half minutes. In the three and a half minutes it took me to read this to you, Your Honor, I wanted you to live, breathe, and feel just what three and a half minutes in my life is like. The sniffles of noses that appear, the tears that fall not only from my eyes but from all of Natalie's supporters here today.

And just the feeling of true, antagonizing pain and desperation. This is and has become who I am as a person. Three and a half minutes, around the same amount of time it took the defendant to manually strangle my best friend three and a half minutes he had to change his mind just for a second and allow my best friend to live three and a half minutes that amount of time time Natalie had to sit there and hopelessly fight for her life. Blake Linkus decided not to address the court. He had the chance to do so, but his attorney spoke on his behalf. From the first moment that I had an opportunity to sit across the desk from Lake Lincoln. He told me,

and this is a direct quote, that he killed his best friend and he would accept any punch that anybody decided was appropriate. That's the way our relationship started. I've been doing this a long time. I was not convinced, even after I had received the discovery and the recorded statements of my client's law enforcement

that the school closed cool story to talk. I knew that at least on my client's part that time I'd been fueled by alcohol. I knew that it was fueled by jealousy.

I knew that it was fueled by confusion on his part. But I suspected something other than a tech that came in and could prompt him to act and what he did. And make no mistake about this, from the very beginning, there's been, I mentioned inus took Natalie Martin's life, but his lawyer claimed to have found information that may have resulted in a manslaughter conviction at trial. But as his attorney, quite frankly with little help from my client, I was not convinced that all of the's something else that needs to be fairly considered about your case. I need to know about it because I've got to advise you about it. We were scheduled for an arraignment, quite frankly,

the intention was and has been for my client to enter a plea at that time through murder because, quite frankly, nothing in the facts provided any argument for any sufficient legal provocation

in connection with the catch. His parents frustrated him. We were very clear. We had no desire for him to manufacture some information in a better disposition, but if there was something we needed to consider or I needed to consider, and Counselor Long and I needed to know that. That's when he advised me of something I believe hadn't been credible to a jury,

certainly hadn't been credible to the court. It would have resulted in at least a jury charge for altering that story. And the potential is there that a jury could return that verdict. Blake Linkus's attorney then explained how his client came to the decision to plead guilty. I discussed at length in great detail the logistics of the trial, what did it look like? What did we mean to his family? What did we mean to Natalie's family?

And after about three hours together, he looked at me and said, I want to do this. Do what? I want to go to trial. I never want to go to trial. I'm never going to go to trial. I was aware of his reluctance,

but at that point, it became clear to me that any decision other than pleading guilty as charged would not be a decision. It would be a combination of other decisions. We talked at great length about what that means. He's maintained that position quite frankly from the very day I met him. He's been at that meeting. And he explained that to me in this way.

He kills the best for him. There is no excuse for that. There's nothing you can do to remedy that, to restore that. The only thing you can do, and the only thing you've been prepared to do since the very beginning, was to take responsibility for for the exact punishment. Members of Blake Linkus' family chose to address the court in the form of letters. The judge took a brief recess to read the letters before returning to the courtroom to deliver Linkus his fate. Not only was Mr. Martin's life lost, but in essence, Mr. Linkus' life, for all intents and purposes, was lost as well, as well as just the sheer agony of the victim's family.

And now, after that, Mr. Lindus' family must also face the fact that their childhood might have been someone they knew and probably considered as well a part of their family based on the bailiff, and probably considered as well a part of the family based on the letters that were presented to the court. And under those circumstances, the minimum serving would not be appropriate.

However, I do think that the same as requested is more than appropriate under the circumstances. And serving will be sentenced to the State Department of Corrections for a period of 45 years. You'll get credit presumed to $1,340, which will be calculated by the Department of Corrections. Thank you very much. Blake Linkus was spared from spending his entire life in prison.

He will be released when he's 65. Unfortunately for Natalie's family, they only got 18 years with her. In her obituary, Natalie's family described her as a free, pure, and wild spirit with a contagious laugh. She enjoyed nature's beauty and loved to hunt, shoot guns, fish, wrangle snakes, plant flowers, and they said she could gut a deer better than most grown men. She loved her dogs, her chickens, and her cat. She also played softball and soccer. They believed she was an angel on earth. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.