Ohio man pleaded guilty to murdering ex-girlfriend at 18. How long is his prison sentence?
A 20-year-old Ohio man will spend decades in prison after pleading guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend.
Blake Linkous strangled and killed his ex-girlfriend, Natalie Martin, while on a trip to Myrtle Beach in June 2023. Judge Deadra Jefferson sentenced him to 45 years in prison.
After graduating from high school, the pair took traveled to Myrtle Beach with friends, The Sun News previously reported.
On June 6, after going to the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach, Linkous and Martin returned to their hotel room. Linkous and Martin then got in argument because Martin was texting another guy, said Scott Rian Hixson, the prosecuting lawyer, during court.
Linkous then manually strangled Martin in a state “fueled by alcohol, jealousy and confusion,” said Linkous’s lawyer Francis A. Humphries Jr. Martin was declared dead on June 7.
Linkous and Martin stopped using their phones at 10:17 p.m. Martin never used hers again, according to Hixson. After 11 p.m., Linkous sent a text to his dad saying “I got mad and screwed up.”
Martin’s friends came back and found her wearing the same outfit she had worn at the House of Blues. They called 911 and when EMS arrived, they said Martin was “beyond help” and passed hours prior, according to Hixson.
Martin, of Roseville, and Linkous, of Blue Rock, had been a couple for several years until they broke up in February 2023, but the two had remained friends, said Martin’s friend Brooklyn Ferrell in a previous interview.
Ferrell claims that Martin was being abused by Linkous, which eventually led to their breakup. And although Ferrell hung out with Martin and Linkous often, she still wasn’t aware how serious the abuse was.
“I thought I knew Blake well. Obviously not well enough,” Ferrell said. “Myself, (Natalie’s) parents and her friends really had no idea what she was going through and never suspected any of this to happen.”
During court, Ferrell requested Judge Jefferson sentence Linkous to life in prison.
During court, Jesse Martin, Natalie Martin’s father, described how he found out Natalie Martin had died. He said after not hearing from his daughter, he started driving to Myrtle Beach to try and find her mother. While taking an exit off the highway, he got the call from the Horry County Coroner’s Office informing him of child’s death.
“We laid on the side of the road, flopping around and realizing we won’t see our little girl again,” Jesse Martin said. He did not ask the judge for a specific prison sentence, instead saying, “Will you let me smell his hair burn? That’s what would make me happy.”
Humphries said Linkous, who said only a few sentences in court, has shown genuine remorse and understood the severity of his actions.
“I was never trying to run away from this tragedy,” Linkous said. “I tried to protect her and I failed.”
