A “remorseless” pimp will spend life in prison after he strangled and dismembered a Brooklyn sex worker to collect her life insurance, and used the TV show “Dexter” as his guide on how to chop her up.
Cory Martin’s “indescribable and despicable acts” earned him a mandatory life sentence for the slaying of Brandy Odom, whose limbless torso was found in Canarsie Park on April 9, 2018, Brooklyn Federal Judge Ann Donnelly ruled Wednesday.
“This was not a murder that happened in a flash of anger,” Donnelly said. “Even the most seasoned investigators will not soon forget what you did to Bandy Odom… One of the difficulties of this case is finding words adequate to describe the horror of it.”
Jurors found the 37-year-old Martin guilty of murder-for-hire and other crimes in March, after a two-week trial that featured the testimony of his battered girlfriend and accomplice, who described the gut-wrenching details of Odom’s death.
The girlfriend, Adelle Anderson, told the jury that she and Martin had been dating on and off since high school, and he abused her throughout their relationship.
Anderson had two sons with other men before she moved in with Martin in his Rosedale, Queens, home, a fact that often kindled his fury.
Detectives check a trash can and other debris found near where Brandy Odom, 26, was found murdered on April 9, 2018, in Canarsie Park in Brooklyn. (Todd Maisel / New York Daily News)
Martin talked about killing one of Anderson’s sons and the boy’s father, and made her take out life insurance policies against her sons and the youngest child’s dad, she said. He beat and repeatedly threatened one of the boys, once putting a gun in the 8-year-old’s mouth and threatening to “blow his f—ing brains out if he kept running his mouth,” Anderson said.
Eventually, he settled on killing Odom, who started doing sex work in 2014, and moved in with Anderson in 2016. The two women were using Martin’s Queens home for their trade, and he controlled their lives like a tyrant, telling them when they could wear clothes and shower.
When the time came to kill Odom, Anderson pretended to be her sister to take out two policies in her name. Martin sent Anderson and her newborn daughter away in April 2018, then strangled Odom and sexually assaulted her so it looked like she was killed by one of her customers.
He sent Anderson a coded text message telling her the deed was done. When she returned, they shared a takeout Red Lobster dinner and he showed her Odom’s corpse before getting to the grim work of dismemberment.
Martin made Anderson watch the true crime show “The First 48” and “Dexter” — a Showtime series about fictional killer Dexter Morgan, who murders other serial killers in a spotless “kill room,” then cuts up the bodies and dumps their severed remains into the sea.
It took two days to cut up Odom’s body, and at one Martin point went to Home Depot to buy a motorized saw.
“There is not a shred of evidence in the record that you even had a single second thought,” Donnelly said before handing down her sentence. “No pangs of conscience… You kept trying to get the money without a second thought.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Dean, noting she has prosecuted numerous homicides in her career, said, “This is the worst case I’ve ever seen… The details of this crime are just simply stunning.”
Martin didn’t speak at the sentencing. But his lawyer, Anthony Cecutti, spoke out against mandatory life sentences, arguing, “He is very much a redeemable person.”
But the judge pushed back, saying that the moral arguments against life sentences don’t apply to the “utter depravity” of Martin’s actions.
“You are a remorseless predator who is a danger to the community,” Donnelly said. “I am confident that you would do this again if you had the opportunity.”
Odom’s mother, Nicole Odom, said she’ll be forever haunted by her daughter’s death, and the fact that they’ll never again be able to share happy moments or life milestones.
“Sleep don’t come easy for me, because when I sleep, I can see my beautiful and Chocolate baby, and we are happy…. Then I have to wake up,” she said, referring to Odom’s nickname, “Chocolate.”
“I may forgive you one day,” she added, “because I know that’s what Brandy would want. But today will not be that day.”