Evidence against Martin Smartt

Crim: Let's go, let's go ahead with the next morning. Sunday morning. The time that Justin came, do you have any idea?



Smartt: It had to have been around 10 or 10:30. I was still in bed, I'm a deadhead. The reason I know about it, is he came in, somebody, you know, uh, Sue and Rickey, or Sue and Johnny had been killed, murdered. I thought, you know, don't come in and tell that kind of joke, it's not funny. He said, I'm not kidding man, look out the window. And sure enough, there was police all over the place. And he started in with the details and I stopped him because I got an eight year old son there. I said, hey, don’t go into details. We don't want to hear all the gory stuff, you know, skip it, because I didn't want the young kid to hear it. So I hushed him up and uh, little kids all over the whole neighborhood coming, and ah ya know, the wife was naturally upset.



Bradley: Ya, I imagine so.



Smartt: You bet.



Smartt: So, she went over to find out, you know, what she could. And I went over and told Doug basically what I told you, you know. I went by twice, and it was well three times, actually four times in the process of the night, and I hadn't noticed anything out of place.



Crim: Is there anything unusual occur with Justin that day that you can recollect?



Smartt: Justin's behavior became very eratic. He kept wanting to go back over around the area where the crime had taken place. He uh, he wanted to go to the Seabolts, of all places. You know, usually if they are going to go play they go to the pond. But they wanted to go to the Seabolts right next door. I told him to stay around the house, don't go nowhere. I was concerned, I didn't want him in the way, and I didn't want him around that type of atmosphere. So he insisted on playing in a tree right out at the edge of the driveway, so he was right close to what all was going on. You know. And his behavior has been erratic since then.



Crim: You say erratic, could you go into some kind of detail about how or?



Smartt: I was gone all day yesterday, was in Reno, but these reports I get, he's very hyper. You know, won't, hard to keep settled down. Uh, picks on his little brother. Almost like he was enjoying it, you know. Uh, hurting his little brother, picking on him, uh, periods of refusing to eat, uh. You know.



Bradley: Of course that was quite an experience for the kid, you



Smartt: Yeah, oh yeah. Just strange behavior. He's just not himself. He's beside himself, his behavior, you know. That's another thing I really don‘t know how to deal with there.



Bradley: Our problem now, is sorting out fact from fiction with all the kids.



Smartt: Yeah.



Bradley: You know, the kids his age.



Crim: Very difficult to talk to kids.



Bradley: And they talk to each other, and they hear something and christ, before you can finish, you don't know if they are imagining half the things, or they have actually seen something or if they are talking about something they heard. And there is a pack of kids around this place.



Crim: Did he, at any time during his behavior or anything, try to recreate that crime or anything?



Smartt: Yes, yes he has. He tried to recreate it with his little brother, yesterday over there, and uh, the wife watched him. Watched him go through it. And he‘s telling Casey, you know, to hold his arm like he had a knife trying to stab it. But from what I understand, the people were killed with a hammer, after that they were stabbed, so I get the feeling there that he was just, you know, play-acting his little creation. It seems unusual that he knew so much about the condition of inside of the house and he was supposed to have been asleep, you know?



Crim: Was he in a position....



Smartt: Now that...'excuse me.



Crim: Was he in a position, did you observe him in a position the following morning over around the Seabolts where if the deputies had left the door opened for a moment or two that he could have looked in there and seen the female?



Smartt: No. The security over there was so tight, that it was just...



Crim: What do you mean?



Smartt: No way could he have accidentally glimpsed in and seen anything because the security was really tightened down at the time. Uh, these are some of the things, you know, I wonder about. You know, whether or not he did see anything.



Crim: Do you feel that there is a big possibility he could have?



Smartt: Justin is a very light sleeper. I, often times he‘s gotten up when I was, like I said, I stoke the fire at about 3:30.



Crim: Uh huh.



Smartt: And uh, often times he's been awakened by me stoking the fire and got up and went to the bathroom during that period of time. And I know that he does sleep light. And he does have trouble goingr to sleep sometimes. Seems to me that under an excitable period such as what they are under, that, you know, 10, laying in bed with your buddy giggling and this and that. There is a very high possibility that he could have been awake or alerted to something unusual in that house. And he is quiet enough to where he could have noticed something without me detecting him.