One-Time Sidewalk Evangelist Executed for Murders of Four

David Dene Martin, a one-time sidewalk evangelist described as alternately obsessed with God and drugs, went to his death in the electric chair today for murdering his wife’s lover and three other people.

He made no final statement, walking tight-lipped and wide-eyed to the heavy wooden chair at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

After Martin was pronounced dead at 12:16 a.m., the coroner pulled away the dead man’s T-shirt to check his pulse and bared a tattoo: “Love Gloria,” the name of his unfaithful wife whose affair sparked the murders.

He made no special request for a last meal and ate the regular prison fare--sloppy Joes.

Martin, 32, was the seventh man executed in Louisiana and the 33rd in the United States since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the reinstatement of the death penalty.

He faced four death sentences for the Aug. 14, 1977, murders at a house trailer in the Blue Bayou community.

One of his victims was Bobby Todd, 33, his wife’s lover. Terry Hebert, 27, Sandra Brake, 19, and Anne Tierney, 19, were also slain when Martin fired 15 shots, stopping twice to reload.

Martin said he was so strung-out on the drug PCP that he did not even realize he was killing people.

“With David, it was either God or drugs,” said Richard Shapiro, Martin’s lawyer, summing up the fervent extremes of his life.