Third person charged in fatal beating of Christopher Martin in Shirley house
A man was beaten to death in a Hounslow Road home in Shirley last week, officials said. Credit: Newsday/James Carbone
A third person was charged in the fatal beating of a man in Shirley last week, during which the victim was jumped and beaten with objects including a sledgehammer, Suffolk County Police announced on Saturday.
Benjamin Sheppard, 33, of Central Islip, was arrested on Friday in the beating, police said in a news release. He's charged with two counts of murder and one count of gang assault.
Christopher Martin, 48, was killed on Sunday. His former roommate — 36-year-old Korey Sammarco — and ex-girlfriend Melissa Fawcett, 50, of Central Islip, were arrested in the attack on Monday, Newsday reported. Both were charged with gang assault.
They were among the five people who kicked down the door of Martin's home and beat him to death with a sledgehammer, barbells and a television, according to court papers. The group was captured on a neighbor's Ring video camera entering Martin's home.
A police spokesman could not provide further details about where Sheppard was arrested or how he was found. The agency also did not have an update on the status of the other two people believed to have stormed Martin's home.
Sheppard was kept in jail over night and was scheduled for an appearance in Central Islip's First District Court on Saturday.
Sammarco and Fawcett were arraigned on Tuesday afternoon and both pleaded not guilty. Bail was set at $1 million for Sammarco, and $500,000 for Fawcett.
Martin and Sammarco both lived at the Hounslow Road house where the murder took place, according to police.
Assistant District Attorney Sheetal Shetty said the two had an ongoing feud and that, the day before the murder, Sammarco was escorted to the home by police to collect his things.
The assistant DA said Sammarco admitted that he beat Martin's head with dumbbells and a sledgehammer and smashed a television on his head.
The complaint against Fawcett says she told police, "yeah, I took a couple shots at [Martin], then I smashed his cell phone on the street," Newsday reported.
Martin's nose and ribs broke during the attack, and he suffered "severe facial trauma," according to the complaint against Sammarco.
Police went to the crime scene Sunday at roughly 7:30 p.m. after receiving a call about the beating. Martin was then taken to Patchogue's NYU Langone Hospital–Suffolk, where he was pronounced dead.
Police wrote in their news release that "anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392."
Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
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