VENTURA : Jury to Weigh Death Sentence for Killer

A jury in Santa Barbara County will decide whether a former Ventura man will be sent to death row for murdering a Canadian tourist two years ago and dumping her body near Carpinteria, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

James Lindsey Martin, 39, is also suspected of shooting an Oxnard man in October, 1991.

Martin was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder for killing Evelyn Marie Hendrix, 68, of Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, in October, 1991. The same jury will begin hearing testimony Monday to determine whether Martin should be sent to the gas chamber.

Hendrix was traveling through Ventura on her way to a Los Angeles cemetery to put flowers on her mother’s grave when Martin abducted her, Santa Barbara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer said.

Martin placed a towel over the woman’s head, “put a gun to the towel and basically blew her brains out,” Dozer said. Her body was dumped off Casitas Pass Road near Carpinteria.

Less than a week later, police said, Martin shot Lloyd Johnson of Oxnard at San Buenaventura State Beach after also placing a towel over Johnson’s head and ordering the man to kneel on the floor of the motor home stolen from Hendrix. Johnson survived the shooting.

Martin has not been charged in the Johnson shooting, a spokesman for the Ventura County district attorney’s office said. Ventura Police Sgt. Bob Anderson, who investigated that case, could not be reached.

“Assuming the defendant would be given the death penalty in Santa Barbara County, I could see why Ventura might not want to proceed,” Dozer said.

Martin is also suspected of fatally shooting a 91-year-old man in Las Vegas about six weeks after the Johnson shooting. Dozer said it was not clear whether Martin would be tried in that slaying.

Martin, who was born in the city of Ventura and spent most of his life here, admitted during the trial that he is a burglar and a thief, but not a murderer. Dozer said he claimed to have killed Hendrix accidentally.