Martin found guilty of second-degree murder

A 12-person jury has found Edward Martin of Millsboro guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree reckless endangerment and possession of a deadly weapon in connection to the Feb. 20, 2022 shooting of 41-year-old Arrick Richards at the Coastal Taproom near Rehoboth Beach. 

Judge Mark Conner set a sentencing date of Friday, Jan. 10, in Delaware Superior Court in Georgetown. 

The jury had the option of convicting Martin on either first-degree murder or the lesser included offenses of second-degree murder or reckless manslaughter. As part of its deliberations, the jury also had to consider Martin’s state of mind. In convicting of second-degree murder, the jury determined that Martin acted in a reckless manner in causing Richards’ death.

After deliberating for nearly seven-and-a-half hours over two days, the jury returned its verdict just after 1 p.m., Oct. 25. The jury, comprising eight women and four men, found Martin not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of all other charges. Martin was found guilty of four counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, four counts of possession of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony and one count of carrying a concealed deadly weapon. Each count of reckless endangerment was tied to the four people that were around Martin when he shot Richards: Laci Richards, Arrick’s wife; Christie Martin, Edward’s wife; Rico Stringfellow, the then-boyfriend of Laci Richards’ friend Jordyn Harris; and Raymond Catalinas, a bystander in the bar that night. 

Whether Martin shot Richards was not in dispute during the trial. What was in dispute was whether Martin intentionally caused Richards’ death or acted recklessly but not intentionally.

The state’s prosecutors, Martin Cosgrove and Amanda Nyman, argued that Martin had been drinking at two different locations, carrying a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in his pocket. Martin did not have a concealed-carry permit for the gun. 

Martin and his wife Christie had been playing pool at Coastal Taproom when Richards, his wife Laci, and mother-in-law, Vicki Orris, arrived after 12:30 a.m. Around 1:12 a.m., Richards and Martin began chirping with one another about the pool game. Their interaction became more tense, and Cosgrove and Nyman argued that it was Martin who was escalating things. Five minutes after they first encountered one another, Martin shot Richards in the chest. Richards died shortly thereafter.

Lead detective Stephen Yeich testified that after the shooting, Martin walked out of the bar, waited in the parking lot for his wife and fled the premises. In the time after the shooting, Martin tossed the gun along Long Neck Road, and hid his extra ammo and holster in a culvert in front of his house. Martin was arrested after 3 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 20, 2022. 

Taking the stand in his own defense, Martin said he saw another patron, later identified as Mack Jean-Francois, flash a gun. He said he had seen Richards and Jean-Francois interact earlier that night. Martin testified that he thought Richards had a gun when he shot him. Martin said it was not until he later saw surveillance footage from Coastal Taproom of the shooting that he realized he had shot an unarmed man.

While sentencing is still to be determined, Martin faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in jail for the second-degree murder charge with a maximum of life in prison. He faces a maximum of five years in prison on each of the reckless endangerment charges and a minimum three-year sentence on each of the possession of a deadly weapon charges. 

Martin’s lead defense attorney, Daniel Strumpf, said the intention is to file an appeal. 

“The Office of the Public Defender never stops fighting for its clients,” he said.