Death penalty vacated for man convicted of 2006 Greene County murder
A man convicted of killing and raping a 12-year-old Greene County girl 20 years ago is no longer facing the death penalty after the court determined he met the standards for intellectual disability.
The sentence for Jeffrey Martin, 68, was amended to life in prison without parole in Greene County Court of Common Pleas Friday.
Testing at multiple points in Martin’s life placed his IQ below 70, while another evaluation in 1992 found he lacked the ability to perform many mundane tasks, his attorney Brad Funari said in a motion to vacate the death penalty.
Exposure to alcohol in the womb had impaired him since before birth, a neurodevelopmental expert determined, according to Funari’s motion, which was filed in October 2024.
The state withdrew its opposition to the defense motion in June.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that under the law as it currently exists, Mr. Martin meets the criteria for intellectual disability, and is therefore ineligible for the death penalty,” Senior Deputy Attorney General Gregory Simatic, lead prosecutor in the case, said at Friday’s hearing.
Martin, originally from New Geneva in Fayette County, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2008 in the strangulation death of Gabrielle Bechen.
Martin worked at the horse farm in Dunkard Township where authorities found Bechen’s ATV five days after her murder on June 13, 2006. They found her body nearby.
Martin confessed to killing Bechen and digging her grave before later recanting.
He was found guilty in 2018 of several charges, including homicide, rape of a child, aggravated assault and abuse of a corpse.
Since his conviction, Martin’s lawyers have filed numerous appeals, both in Greene County Common Pleas Court and in federal court in Pittsburgh.
The federal case had been on hold while the intellectual disability claim was resolved at the state level.
Martin attended the hearing virtually via videoconference, but declined to speak.
Bechen’s parents, who originally indicated they would make a statement at Friday’s hearing, opted not to. Blanche Bechen, Gabrielle’s mother, said she would be “too emotional.”
The motion to vacate the death sentence originally included language drafted by the defense referencing a claim of ineffective counsel at the original trial. It was stricken from the motion at the request of Simatic, who said it was “beyond what we are prepared to concede.”
Friday’s hearing will not be the last in the case. The ineffective counsel argument formed the basis of Martin’s appeal of his conviction. The state Supreme Court remanded the case to Greene County in 2024.
“We understand the Supreme Court’s briefing to be ‘Come up with a definitive list, and deal with it here,'” said Martin’s attorney Brad Funari.
By Nov. 23, the defense must submit that definitive list of issues it plans to bring up at the Dec. 10 status hearing to Senior Judge John Wagner. It would be followed by an evidentiary hearing in February 2027 at the earliest, Wagner said.