Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - American Airlines Pilot Taken From Cockpit in Handcuffs on Murder Charges

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

Three bodies are found. Two are burned in a car in a Pembroke, Kentucky field. After police identify the car's owner, the body of Calvin Phillips is found in his home. His wife Pamela, and a neighbor Edward Dansereau are identified as the victims in the car. As police investigate, a connection is found to a neighbor, pilot Christopher "Kit” Martin, but there's no evidence that he committed the murders. Or is there?Joining Nancy Grace Today: Kathleen Murphy - North Carolina, Family Attorney, www.ncdomesticlaw.com Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com  Dr. Michelle Dupre - Forensic Pathologist and former Medical Examiner, Author: “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide", Former Police Detective Lexington County Sheriff’s Department Jeff Cortese - Former FBI Special Agent, www.jeffcortese.com Sabrina Hall - Former TV Reporter, FOX 17 News Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Do you ever have that feeling of a little bit of nervousness, anxiety when you're about to take off or land on a long flight, but then you hear the captain come over the loudspeaker and he, she is always so calm and they're talking very slowly, explaining what's happening and suddenly you feel like, hey, everything's all right. Well, guess what? It's not all right. How does a former Army Major Apache pilot, now pilot for American Airlines, get escorted off the plane he just captained and charged with murder? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace calvin phillips pam phillips and ed dancerow all murdered in pembroke kentucky in 2015

the case was puzzling and ice cold then all, all of a sudden, three years later, police arrest Martin, escorting him off a full American Airlines flight he was piloting. No DNA, no witnesses, no comment from the prosecution. They eventually say the motive was that one of the victims was going to testify against Martin. But Martin believes the victim was going to testify against his bigamist wife, Joan. Whoa, wait a minute. Now I've got bigamy thrown in the mix. Bigamy is very, very rarely prosecuted. Bigamy is when you're married to two people or more at the same time. So in the middle of this cesspool brewing on the stove, you got bigamy thrown in? You were just hearing our friends at Fox 17 Nashville. Can you imagine that flight full of people, 200, about 200 people seeing the captain that just piloted their airline being taken off in handcuffs? Yeah,

that's not a good look. With me right now, an all-star panel. Let me tell you who they are. Kathleen Murphy joining us, veteran trial attorney joining us out of North Carolina. And you can find her at ncdomesticlaw.com. Renowned psychologist joining us out of Manhattan. You know her well. Karen Stark at karenstark.com with a C if Karen. Dr. Michelle Dupree, pathologist, former medical examiner

and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Catch this. She's also a former police detective to boot. Jeff Cortese, former FBI special agent. You can find him at jeffcortese.com. And Sabrina Hall, TV reporter, formerly with Fox 17 News. Now, you know what? When I hear Sabrina Hall, that there are no witnesses and no DNA, that gives me pause for concern. When you are hauling a former Army major Apache pilot, very well respected,

off of an American Airlines flight full of about 200 people. Guys, before Sabrina Hall breaks it down for us, listen to this. Three people are missing on this street and neighbors believe they are dead. They are the husband and wife that live in this house, a man that lives right next door in a White House and now an attorney tells me the man who lives in that yellow house has been questioned for these crimes. He's just happy to now be out of a barracks where he had a washcloth, a towel and a bar of soap since Friday night. Attorney Bill Summers is talking about this man, Army Captain Christian Kit Martin. Summers says the Army's Criminal Investigation Division took him into

custody Friday as deputies searched his home and looked for clues in a triple murder. The Christian County Sheriff's Department says they found two people burned up in a car set on fire Thursday and then another man shot to death in this house. The people who live here are husband and wife, Pam and Cal Phillips. So let me understand something, Sabrina Hall. And, of course, everybody knows when you yank somebody like a former Army major, an American Airlines pilot off of a plane, reading his rights and cuffing, you better have some evidence.

Or you are looking at a major, major false arrest claim. Tell me, Sabrina Hall, without DNA, without a witness, I'm not quite sure how the state's going to make this case. So let's just take it from the beginning. Let's start at the get-go. What happened? Okay, so when I got there at the scene, there were two bodies in the car. Okay, wait a minute, right there. Hold on. I want to hear every detail. I want to hear what it looked like, how you found out about it. Is it urban? Is it rural? Is it suburban? Is it a car on the side of the interstate? Is it a rural road?

Tell me everything. It was in an empty field and there was a car burned up. They found two bodies incinerated in the car. They were able to track that car to Pam Phillips and Cal Phillips' house. Okay, hold on right there.

I'm taking you from the fire hydrant. With me, Sabrina Hall, former TV reporter, Fox 17. That's a lot of evidence right there because let me go through this with Jeff Cortese, former FBI special agent. Jeff, right there in a field. Now, if you see a car that's upside down on the side of the interstate and it's on fire, you know why. There was a crash, right? If you see it down a ravine on fire, you know there was a crash,

most likely. If there's a double car incident, crash. But a car, by a single car, blow up in the middle of a field, right there, tell you that's a crime that's not just an accident that is a crime yeah absolutely uh that would be one of those um in your face moments that give you the indication that that's something nefarious certainly has come on yeah because why would why would people drive to the middle of a field and then their car blew up? They wouldn't. So right at the get-go, Sabrina Hall, you know something is very, very wrong. Okay, so how did you find out about it? I don't know if it was over the scanners.

I'm not really sure, but I was a reporter in Nashville and head down an hour outside of Nashville to Pembroke. And then that license plate on the car led to that couple that hadn't been seen okay hold on wait right there if you heard it over a police scanner you know Karen Stark New York psychologist guys do you know anybody that has this police scanners in their home my grandmother Lucy who Lucy

my daughter's named after second husband a much younger man loved the weather scanners and the police scanners. They were everywhere. You could not go into my mama's house without hearing a police or a weather report. And they all sounded very menacing. They weren't.

But they sounded that way. Karen Stark, what is that? Now, no shade on you, Sabrina Hall. Okay, I know you're just doing your job. But what is it with people that have all the police scanners? Like they're going to rush out to the crime scene? No, but they're just fascinated by crime and what's happening around them. Well, I certainly don't have a leg to stand on there.

And that's exactly, I mean, if you think about it, Nancy, over the years more and more people are getting interested in the kind of stories that we're covering right now. And when you and I first started, yes, people were interested, but not like now. Now there's CrimeCon, and people really want to know what's going on, especially if it's in their area. Karen Starr, we've discussed this before in person. These are not stories like I would read a story to the children at night. These are not stories like I would read a story to the children at night. These are real people.

And there's a real car in the middle of a real field burning with two bodies in it. So Sabrina Hall, formerly with Fox 17, you hear it on a police scanner. You recall. You think you recall. You race to the scene, and you see what? I just see a burned-up car and we don't know much else except there's still burning no i don't recall it's still burning but it was incinerated i mean it was it was very much burned and like i said they were able to read the license

plate and track it back to that couple cam cal and pam phillips when you saw the car separating the hall how much of it was left? I mean, it was, when you say incinerated, it was, I know they, they, they could barely make out that there were bodies in there from what I recall. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. So we are talking about an American Airlines veteran pilot being dragged off the plane in front of two or three hundred people on the plane in handcuffs. A former Army Major Apache pilot. We don't have witnesses or DNA. So how are they connecting him?

You know, to Dr. Michelle Dupree, forensic pathologist, former medical examiner, author, she literally wrote the book, Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Dr. Dupree, why do people think they can burn a crime scene and we're

not going to find out there's a body in there? I mean, that's an excellent question. I do not know, but I'm so glad when criminals are dumb because they always leave some kind of evidence. It's up to us to find it. And burning doesn't really destroy everything. Burning can obviously destroy bodies and can destroy DNA, but there will still be some evidence. In fact, I actually went to a crime scene where the smoke from the burn covered the rearview mirror, and it left a perfect fingerprint when we dusted it. Whoa, whoa, what?

Say that again. I love that. So they tried to burn the bodies in a car, and the smoke from the car was all over the inside of the car. We actually dusted the rearview mirror, and we took the smoke off with the fingerprint brush, and we found a fingerprint on the rearview mirror where the perpetrator had changed the rearview mirror. Dr. Dupree, if nobody else tells you today, let me be the first to tell you, you're brilliant. I hope you know that. I hope you don't go home at night and there's a husband that says, hey, honey, what's for dinner

and doesn't realize how brilliant you are. That's incredible. And you know, it brings to mind a case that you and I have analyzed many times, Kathleen Murphy, the case of Stephen Avery and Teresa Hallback, the victim, a 20-something-year-old photographer, Teresa Hallback, Stephen Avery, the pervy killer. And then there was, I guess it was a Netflix special, Making a Murderer, that makes you believe Stephen Avery didn't murder Teresa Hallback. A, he did. And B, remember all that was left Kathleen were I think some of her teeth, but for sure the studs off the back pockets of her Daisy Fuentes blue jeans.

Yeah. Remember that? And he stirred that fire pit, Steve and Avery, all night long. I think he threw a couple of tires in there to make it keep burning because he knew that was the only way to truly burn a human body is to burn it for a long period of time at a high, a high degree, a high burning degree. So it is very hard. But as Dr. Dupree just told us, it's very hard to get rid of all traces of a human body by burning. And he didn't. You know, one interesting fun fact is yesterday I was watching your friend Dr. Phil,

and that woman that he was engaged to was on there. And subsequently, she became unengaged to Steve and Avery, and she talked about his personality and how creepy he really was. And you know that there's a creep factor for this defendant. And other people have testified that behind closed doors, Kit Martin was a monster. I'm just absorbing everything you're saying, because, you know, when you're working up a case, Jeff Cortese, poor Sabrina Hall, formerly Fox 17, is probably thinking, wait, I've only said three sentences. But Jeff Cortese, I've given this example before. I was trying to prosecute a serial killer, and we could not get him. I finally found out we get a Jane Doe dead body.

The location, the placement of one of her earrings after that was analyzed led me to reams of hypotheses on how the murder went down. My point is that every single fact matters. The fact that there was a one car accident in the middle of a field, that it was incinerated, as Sabrina Hall, Fox 17 says, that you could barely see the remains of the bodies. Every fact matters. And you really have to absorb each fact if you want to win that case. Yeah, you really do. You know, these investigations, it's always about the, you know, you're looking at the

totality of the circumstances, but you're also looking at the minutiae, the smallest detail, because like you said, you just don't know what little detail is going to be the difference between catching the bad guy and watching him or her walk free. All those little nuanced pieces of evidence, it really can make the biggest difference. It's not always the sexiest piece of evidence either. It could be something so unique and something just so seemingly irrelevant, maybe even out of the gates. Sometimes evidence that you find at the onset later becomes more significant as the investigation goes on. Well, I got to tell you something, Jeff Cortese.

If it's probative, if it proves something, it's sexy to me. So let me go back to you, Sabrina Hall. I want you to take a listen to our friend Scott Couch, Fox 17 Nashville. New information tonight in a triple murder that we are following along the Tennessee-Kentucky state line. One of the victims in Pembroke, Kentucky, is identified as Calvin Lee Phillips. Deputies found Phillips' body inside this home. He had been shot.

The medical examiner is still working to identify the bodies of two other people found in Phillips' burned-out car a few miles away from the house. Okay, so we've got Calvin Lee Phillips shot dead in his home, and then we've got two unidentified bodies found in Phillips' burned-out car a few miles away. Now, I mean, a lot of people would jump to the conclusion that the dead guy in the home murdered the other two and then killed himself. Yeah, that was the initial thought. But I'm not jumping to that conclusion. Go ahead, Sabrina.

Yeah, that was the initial thought. They thought it could be a murder-suicide. But then they realized, you know, the neighbors were telling me right away that, you know, Cal Phillips was in a dispute with his neighbor right across the street, which was Christian Martin. And they immediately, police and investigators started, you know, searching Kit Martin's house. Okay, hold on. Let me get this straight. Who do we figure out is in the car? It was Calvin Phillips' wife, Pamela Phillips, and their next door neighbor, Edward Danzaro. And it's assumed that Ed was coming to the rescue of something going on at the neighbor's house and

was just caught up in this and also murdered. Put in the car with Pam Phillips, driven to that field, set on fire while Cal Phillips was dead in the cellar in his house. Dead in the cellar of his house. So we've got three dead bodies. Calvin Phillips, dead in his own home. Yeah. His wife, Pam, dead in the car out in the field, and then who we believe to be a Good Samaritan neighbor, Ed Dancerow, their neighbor, is also in the car.

So I still don't get how that links up this very well-respected American Airlines pilot, a former Army Major Apache pilot. You're telling me he lived across the street. Is that what you're telling me? Yeah, it was very bizarre. Right across the street, it was a very bizarre crime scene. Oh, you know that old saying, familiarity breeds contempt. Here, Karen Starr, oh, it sounds like Des sounds like desperate housewives i never told anybody but you know that was the once in a while okay every sunday night that was the only thing that i would actually watch just because i don't know it unwound my mind from from everything i do during the week so that's what it sounds like karen. You know how all the neighbors all hated each other? Familiarity

breeds contempt, Karen Stark. Well, familiarity also breeds affairs, Nancy, and who knows what was going on. Why is it always about sex with you, Karen Stark? No matter what scenario, somehow you believe it's about sex. Okay. I mean,

I'm just a lawyer. You're the psychologist, but how did you work sex into this? It just makes you think, you know, what could have been going on beside the fact that... There are other things in the world besides sex. You think? I'm pretty sure. Okay. Okay. Okay. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A triple homicide. A triple homicide and then an American Airlines pilot getting carted off the plane in handcuffs with no DNA and no eyewitnesses.

Now, you were just hearing our friend Scott Couch, Fox 17 Nashville. But then we find out about new developments. Take a listen to Fox 17. New developments tonight in a triple murder case in Pembroke, Kentucky. This evening, a Fort Campbell Army captain is back home in the barracks after investigators questioned him and searched his home. Major Christian Martin lives right across the street from three people who disappeared the same time deputies found three bodies. Three bodies, that's right. Here's our friends at CrimeOnline.com. As police look for a culprit,

they find out Calvin Phillips is scheduled to testify in a court-martial involving Captain Christian Martin. He's accused of sexual assault, physical assault, conduct unbecoming an officer, mishandling classified information, and communicating a threat. Phillips and Martin are neighbors. Okay, this is where I need an expert, and I'm going to go to Sabrina Hall, formerly with Fox 17, there in Nashville. What, Sabrina? Yeah, so Calvin Phillips was scheduled to testify against Christian Martin two weeks. Wait, Calvin Phillips dead in the cellar?

Yes. two weeks you know calvin phillips dead in the cellar yes he's going to testify at a court marshal against this army major christian kit martin who lives across the street right okay so he's set to testify okay and go ahead and so he allegedly found well he did find. Who's he? Calvin Phillips. He who? Calvin Phillips. Dead guy. Was helping, yeah, was helping Kit Martin's ex-wife move out of the house and found classified information that Christian Martin was not supposed to have. What do you mean by classified information? What was he doing with classified information he's not supposed to have? I don't like the sound of that one bit. Yeah, and also he was accused of abusing Joan Harmon, Christian Martin's ex-wife, you know, her child. So that's what he was accused of. So the neighbor, the pilot, is facing court-martial for possessing this top-secret information and the sex abuse of a child?

Yes. Okay, can I get back to the classified information? What classified information do we think he had at his home he's not supposed to have? It was never revealed. They were on disks, and they were marked secret, and Calvin Phillips stumbled upon it while helping his ex-wife move out of the house. Christian Martin's ex-wife move out of the house. Christian Martin's ex-wife moved out of the house. And he told Joan Harmon, the ex-wife, this really needs to be reported to authorities.

He should not be having this information. Well, how did he know it was on a disc marked secret? Which screams, watch me, read me. So did he read the discs? I have no idea. They never revealed what was on the discs. I have no information on that. Wow.

That is secret. You know what? Let me go straight out to Jeff Cortese, former FBI special agent. No, that's not good. That's not good. You know, classified information is very protected information. Leaving her around, the fact that that was found, the fact that he had it.

You know, this is one of those little pieces that started putting the puzzle together. So back to you, Sabrina Hall, former Fox 17. So now we learn that there is a horrible tempest brewing between two neighbors. You've got the victim found in the cellar, Calvin Phillips, set to testify against neighbor, the pilot, Kit Martin, in a court-martial. For he would lose everything, his status, his pension, his everything, on charges of having secret information, government information he's not supposed to have, and the sex abuse of Calvin Phillips' child?

No, Joan Harmon. And where did Joan Harmon live? Does she live in the neighborhood too? Well, she was somewhere in the area, but that's when the story got really twisted because when I was reporting on it, I talked to his original attorney, Bill Summers, and he started talking about this twist about the ex-wife being charged with bigamy and right away was pointing fingers at the ex-wife somehow being involved in this and having sex with Calvin Phillips in a barn. And so right when I heard that, I said, this is a very, very strange story. Okay, see, I didn't see that coming. And now I've got to eat a dirt sandwich because apparently New York psychologist Karen Stark was right.

It is all about sex. You've got all these neighbors all together. And this one's a bigamist. A woman is a bigamist. That's rare, actually. Usually it's a man one's a bigamist. A woman is a bigamist. That's rare, actually. Usually it's a man that's a bigamist. And they're all having sex with each other. One's in a barn. Okay. Karen Stark, you win.

I lose, but I demand a rematch. Kathleen Murphy, have you heard anything so bizarre? And what about this tactic? I love this tactic. So you've got the pilot, Kit Martin, suspected in three murders. The guy in the basement, who is Calvin Phillips, his wife, Pam Phillips, and the Good Samaritan neighbor who tried to intervene, Ed Dancerow,

there in the car, incinerated. And when you ask the defense attorney, what do you have to say? He starts pointing the finger at somebody completely different going, well, she's a bigamist. Smoking mirrors. Look there, not here. That's what that is. Classic. That's our job.

That's our job. And, you know, I am amazed that there's no story out there on in the investigation of the Joan Harmon Guerrero connection to this murder, because a lot of people are saying that it was something that she developed and she devised in an effort to frame Kit Martin. I find that very interesting. Oh, I love it when we're reduced to what people say. You know, it reminds me of bringing my twins home one day from school and my son goes, I heard Miss Cartwright gives out candy at Reading Circle. I'm like, really? Where did you hear that? And he goes, on the playground. So you know what? I don't give a flying fig about what people are saying. I care about what the

evidence proves. Guys, take a listen to Erica Lathon, Fox 17. Now, Attorney Bill Summers says that court-martial hearing that was scheduled for December 1st at Fort Campbell versus Client, that has been postponed, but he anticipates they'll be in court Monday to discuss the evidence that was taken from his client's home, including a laptop computer. You know, here's the kicker to that, Kathleen Murphy. The fact that a neighbor took the classified information disc, not law enforcement, they're not going to be able to contest that in court. The Constitution protects us all from unreasonable searches by the state. And that does not protect you from an unreasonable search by a neighbor who finds classified information on your laptop and hands it over to authorities.

I learned that in a case where I prosecuted a drug lord. As provided to the neighbor. I prosecuted a drug lord in Atlanta, high-rise, near where Elton John lived. Really ritzy. And the doorman intercepted a giant FedEx to this guy, and the doorman tells me that the corner was torn, and he could see a block of cocaine in there, uncut block the size of a brick.

Calls police. Yes, that's what it is. The biggest component of that trial was the cops didn't search the FedEx. A civilian, a doorman, opened it up. So there was no unreasonable search by the state. The cocaine came in. And that's what happened here. Kathleen Murphy? You could say that, but Nancy, this was provided.

Yes, it is true. But it was also in conjunction with Joan Harmon moving out of the residence with the help of Cal Phillips. It may be interesting, but it's still going to come into evidence. It's interesting to me that there is no physical evidence. It may be interesting, but it's still going to come into evidence. There's no physical evidence with Kit Martin either. Yeah, you know what? Let's talk about that. Take a listen to this. Martin's attorney says an alleged affair between Martin's ex-wife and Phillips caused tension.

Kit stopped having any kind of a neighborly exchange with him. The 59-year-old had also been set to testify in an upcoming sexual assault case filed against Martin, but he says the Army major didn't kill his neighbor. A man who was having a sexual intimate relationship with somebody that you thought you were married to, and they end up in this horrific type of death, any good cop would go there. So let me understand, Sabrina Hall, the dead guy in the basement, the seller, Calvin Phillips, was having an affair with Kit Martin's wife? Well, that is what Christian Martin told people or, you know, said.

But I talked to Joan Harmon and said that and she said that she looked at Cal Phillips like a father. And that was absolutely not true. So that is what Christian Martin is saying. But she's denying that. Take a listen to Alex Apple, Fox 17. The state believes Kit Martin killed his neighbor, Cal Phillips, to keep him from testifying against Martin in military court. Martin's ex-wife, Joan, had alleged that Kit was abusive to her and her children,

but the felony allegations didn't stick. Had the facts proved, Gil Joan would have received a six-figure settlement from the military. What the defense says, though, is that their private investigator interviewed Phillips just before his death and convinced him to testify for Kit Martin, saying Martin's wife made up the allegations in an attempt to ruin his career. Bond is set at $3 million cash. At a bond hearing this week, Martin had a small army of support in the gallery. His daughter swears her dad is innocent. He's innocent and I'm looking forward to the truth coming out. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

These murders take place just two weeks before Calvin Phillips is set to testify against Kit Martin in a court-martial case where the 30-year military vet was accused of child rape and assault of his stepson. Investigators say the other victims were shot for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. You know, Sabrina Hall, formerly with Fox 17 News, what, if anything, is the evidence against the American Airlines pilot Kit Martin? There was such little evidence, you know, and I had called multiple times, you know, every week to the Kentucky State Police asking if they had any DNA evidence, and they never had anything. And then, you know, three years go by, I'm not a reporter anymore, but I see that Kit Martin has finally been picked up and arrested. And I thought, wow, what did they get?

What kind of evidence did they finally get? I have to know this. And there was no DNA evidence. There was no real evidence. The most damning evidence. Well, wait a minute. What about the fact that a shell casing found at the scene where the victims were shot, matched, and was fired from a.45 caliber handgun

found in a safe belonging to Kit Martin in his home across the street. So his gun was the gun that shot the victims. I call that evidence. It is, but they found, I think it was a family member of Calvin Phillips was the gun that shot the victims. I call that evidence. It is, but they found, I think it was a family member of Calvin Phillips that found that casing months after the crime, after police had already swept the place. And so it was, you know, they thought, they made an argument that it could have been placed there by the family that wanted to see Christian Martin convicted. So let me understand, let's follow that wanted to see Christian Martin convicted. So let me understand.

Let's follow that through to its logical conclusion. To suggest that that was planted, wow, this reminds me of the O.J. Simpson planting evidence theory. So to think that that evidence, that gunshot casing was planted. You would have to believe that somehow the Phillips family member breaks into Kit Martin's home, gets his.45 caliber out of a safe that is locked, goes back over to the scene, the cellar, shoots the gun, leaves the casing, then sneaks back into Martin's home and puts the gun back in the safe. Is that your theory?

Well, they were saying that they used to shoot guns in the backyard and Christian Martin had shot guns in their backyard at some point in the past. So there could have been casings there from before. So that's what their argument was. And also, I don't think they could 100% prove it was from his gun. Well, Jeff Cortez, a former special agent, FBI, you can prove 100%. It's from a particular gun explained. When the hammer in the gun goes forward and hits the shell and the bullet is expelled

from the weapon, there are elements within that gun that are unique to that gun. And so through the course of forensic analysis, you know, the real experts are, you know, should be able to look at a shell casing and make a determination. You know, I'm not going to presume to know for sure. You know, there are certainly cases where, you know, whether, whether somebody did something to the shell casing or otherwise would make it so that maybe they couldn't, with 100% certainty, make a determination. But the science is there to support their ability to usually determine.

To Dr. Michelle Dupree, a bullet or shell casing is like a fingerprint. As a bullet hurtles down the barrel of the gun, that gun has unique markings on the inside of the barrel from where the gun dried after it was created out of hot lead. Only that gun dries that way. And as a bullet hurtles at high speed down the barrel, that bullet is marked with what we call striation marks. What you do is you get the gun, the suspected murder weapon, you shoot a bullet.

Shoot it into a mattress or a tub of water. That's what we used to do. Then you get the known bullet that you just shot, and you compare it to the bullet taken out of the body or at the crime scene under a microscope. You can see the same exact striation or lines on the bullet, and it looks like a fingerprint. That's how you do it.

It's not hard. Yes, Nancy, that is true. However, sometimes the that is true. However, sometimes the bullet is so damaged that you cannot look at those. However, if we find a casing that the bullet was in that came from that gun, the casing also has individual marks from the specific gun. And lately we have found, well, in the last few years, that even that casing can still have a fingerprint of the person who touched that bullet before. Right, who loaded it.

Yeah. And is it true, Sabrina Hall, that Kit Martin, the American Airline pilot's dog tags were found in the victim's home? Yeah, and that was another suspicious thing because it seemed like it could have been planted there the way that it was just sat on a shelf. Planted by who? That's, you know, the family that wanted to see someone in jail. I mean, that was the defense's argument. Interesting. Cell phone tower records indicate he was inactive at three different points on November 18, the day that all of this happened. What, if anything, does that prove, Sabrina Hall?

Well, just that he had the opportunity to commit the crime. You know, another piece of evidence that they had was that he set his alarm in the middle of the night for 1 10 a.m and that's when they believe that he took those bodies to the the field and burned them at 1 10 in the morning his argument was that he was checking on a kerosene heater at 1 10 in the morning um well what time did the murders allegedly occur because i know that the murders were committed and the bodies moved and burned at the exact times Kit Martin turned his cell phone off. Yes. And they had security video of him, you know, doing mundane things throughout the day. And he was not seen outside of the house past midnight.

You know, however, the day that week when these murders happened, his attorney at the time, before he knew what the surveillance video showed, he told me that they would see Kid Martin outside of the house at 2 a.m. because the dogs were barking very loudly. And that never came out. So I feel like the attorney was trying to cover some bases there that next day, that next week, telling me that he would be seen on surveillance video at two in the morning because of dogs barking. But that video was never shown in court. There was no video of him at two in the morning. We also know that Kit Martin, the airline pilot, had an alibi that he was at home at the time of the killings, but the cell phone records show that was not true. What do you make of that,

Sabrina Hall? You know, I have no idea. His wife or his fiance was apparently sleeping in bed with him that night when he allegedly set his alarm at 110 in the morning to do something suspicious. You know, I don't know if she heard something, if she's, you know's lying that she didn't hear something. Take a listen to our cut 10. This is Alex Apple, Fox 17. Four years later, the entire murder case hinges on whose ally Cal Phillips would have been in that old military court-martial. The defense's private investigator wrote in an email to police he was convinced Cal Phillips was murdered to prevent his testimony on behalf of the defense. What's interesting is the defenses, the defenses private investigator wrote to police that he was convinced Cal Phillips was murdered to prevent his testimony on behalf of the defense. In the end, take a listen to our friends at Fox 17. Fox 17 News Crime Alert now. A Kentucky jury recommending a former American Airlines pilot

get four life sentences. A judge will have the final say. Now, late last night, they convicted Kit Martin in a 2015 triple murder in Christian County. Martin killed his neighbors ahead of a court-martial where one of the victims had been set to testify. Investigators say cell phone data puts him at the crime scene. Kathleen Murphy, a recommendation of four life sentences. What's going to happen next? I believe the sentencing will be in September of this year, Nancy. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.