WITNESS STATEMENTS- Defense witness: Beck Martin

My name is Beck Martin. I am 17 years old. I live at 789 Fortuna Road in Driftwood City. During the 2001-2002 school year, I was a co-captain on Driftwood's crew team. Throughout high school, I had won many awards for academic decathlons, debate society competitions, and fiction writing.

I will admit up front that I cheated on the Honors English Literature exam in Mr. Molina's class. I am deeply ashamed that I did this. The irony is that I think I would have done well on the exam anyway. I had an "A" in that class already. But my parents were really counting on me to earn a scholarship to enable me to go to Empire University, It is a family tradition to excel in school. That DWF scholarship was very important to me. I was afraid of getting anything less than an "A" in Mr. Molina's class. That is also why I cheated in algebra that other time.

In early May, I took the spare key to Molina's cabinet from the office of the English department. I was an intern in the English department as part of the school volunteer community service program. In Molina's cabinet, I found a blank exam, photocopied it, and returned the blank exam and the key. No one was the wiser, until Cody Ward noticed me taking the key from my pocket as I walked into the English department's empty office. Cody asked what I was doing, but I did not want to say. Cody threatened to tell the dean that I was nosing around without permission, so I showed Cody the exam photocopy. Cody asked to get a copy of that, too. I said, "OK." After that, we worked together over the next couple of weeks preparing all the answers in advance. We aced the exam, of course.

At school on June 2, I asked Cody to get rid of the exam copy we had used. I took it out of my backpack and handed it to Cody. That is when Anne Marcus approached us and grabbed the exam from Cody's hands. She looked at it, and I could tell she knew right away what it was. She accused us of cheating. Of course, she was right. We begged her to keep her mouth shut about it. She was angry, though. She accused us of destroying her chances for getting the scholarship. Then she put the exam in her backpack and locker. She said it would stay there either until we turned ourselves in or until she told on us sometime Monday.

I was afraid, so I tried calling Anne's phone number many times over the weekend. When Anne did not return any of my calls, I decided to talk to my minister that Sunday morning. Just before church began, I told the Rev. Jimenez that I cheated and that I wanted to turn myself in. The reverend agreed that was the best thing to do. I just wanted a little more time to do it, I wanted Anne not to turn us in until Tuesday so I could think about how to explain it to my parents. I felt like my life was ruined, so I needed courage. I wanted to tell them when they called Monday night. They called me every Monday night while they were away in Europe.

I called Cody in the afternoon. Cody insisted that I find out where Anne was. I knew Anne was an avid rock climber and that she loved to climb the rock face at Ballena Beach. Cody offered to drive us down there so tnat we could talk to her. I did not teli Cody about my plan to get Anne just to postpone telling on us.

When we got there, we saw Anne. She was the only climber on the rock face. We walked along the ridge and waited for her. When Anne reached the ridge I had the fright of my life. A piece of rock gave way under her foot when she turned to gather up her rope. I grabbed her quickly to keep her from falling. She seemed startled. It all happened within a few seconds. Cody laughed and did not even attempt to help, which I thought was a bizarre reaction.

Anne started to walk toward that cove, and we went with her. Cody lagged behind a bit, and Anne and I talked. I asked Anne to wait until Tuesday, because I wanted to explain it to my parents before Dean Okita told them. Anne refused. Still, I begged Anne, though she said she would not change her mind. We argued about it. Anne was annoyed that we had come down to see her and that Cody kept laughing. When we were almost at the cove, I turned around and saw that Cody was gone. Anne and I climbed down into the cove. There we talked for a while, and she finally said she would not turn us in until Tuesday morning. She still seemed annoyed with me, and said, "Whatever. You have until Tuesday." She started climbing up the southern cliff. I watched her climb for a little white and then I left.

It took me a while to walk back to Cody's car as it got darker. It was 8:30 p.m. according to my watch when I arrived at the car, but Cody was not there. 1 was upset because Cody stranded us on the trail and now was gone. I decided to take a walk to cool off, so I headed north up the beach. It was about 9:00 p.m. and totally dark when 1 came back.

Back at the car, I saw Cody was waiting for me this time, sitting on the hood of the car. I was mad at Cody for ditching me. I told Cody that Anne would wait one more day, I also said, "I thought we were in this together." Cody laughed again, which I thought was a weird response to what I said. We shouted a little at each other, but then Cody drove me home. We were both silent all the way home. I do not know where Cody got this idea about a spot on my wrist, i never saw anything on my wrists that day.

On June 10,1 arrived at school at 7:00 a.m. Sometimes I come eariy to work out on the rowing machine in the gym. I also thought 1 might confess the cheating to Dean Okita, but I chickened out. I was scared, because Dean Okita and I never got along. I never felt that Okita liked me very much. A couple of hours later, Okita announced that Anne died. I was shocked. I realized that I might have been the last person to ever see Anne. That cove can be a dangerous place.

Just after1:30 or so, an office monitor came to my class to tell me to go to the dean's office. I went there, and I saw a police officer. The dean introduced this person as Officer Kripke, who wanted to talk with me alone. The dean left the office and told us to take our time.

[The officer told me to sit down. The officer read me the rights they say on the cop shows. I thought I was under arrest and I was nervous because I had never been questioned by the police before. The officer said my statements were being tape-recorded, which to me sounded serious. Then the officer asked me about Anne at the beach. This did not sound right to me. I had no idea what this was about, so I asked to see my Aunt Myra, who lived down the street from us. Since my parents were gone, I wanted to talk to her before talking to the officer. The officer said that my aunt was not going to be called, but that I could have an attorney. This frightened me, but I felt I needed permission to get up, so I did not move. The whole situation was intimidating. Then the officer asked me if Anne and I were friends. I was still so horrified that she was dead, the officer's question just jolted me. I mentioned that I assumed she had fallen from the cliff where I last saw her and possibly hit her head. She was an experienced climber, but she had had minor accidents before. The whole questioning had me confused. The officer's tone of voice was very stern.]

When the questioning ended I was sent back to class. I was totally shocked when I was arrested later. E cannot believe that anyone would think that I killed Anne.