Brian Joseph Martell will spend the next 15 years in prison and the following 10 years on supervised probation as the result of a negotiated plea agreement. He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
Appalachian Judicial Circuit District Attorney B. Alison Sosebee said Martell was sentenced last Thursday, February 25, in Fannin County Superior Court.
The 25-year sentence combines charges in a pair of indictments returned by two separate Fannin County grand juries.
The most recent of those was returned by the November 2020 term of the grand jury as the result of Martell’s arrest by McCaysville police September 19, 2020.
Multiple drug and traffic charges were laid out in the first 19 counts of the indictment, followed by a final count of Sosebee’s Notice of Intent to Seek Recidivist Punishment. That notice outlined Martell’s previous felony convictions including robbery, three counts of felony grand theft, and burglary in Palm Beach County in cases between August 2009 and May 2014. It also outlined three felony convictions in Fannin County between May 2016 and August 2016. Those included False Imprisonment, two counts of Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Schedule IV Controlled Substance, and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony.
The first 19 counts included Trafficking in Illegal Drugs, Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent to Distribute, Possession of Schedule III and IV Controlled Substances and Attempting to Elude a Police Officer.
An indictment returned by the May 2017 term of the Grand Jury charged Martell with Riot in a Penal Institution, Battery, and a recidivist count.
Those charges stemmed from an August 2016 fight when Martell was a prisoner in the Fannin County Adult Detention Center.
In the negotiated plea, Sosebee said Martell was sentenced on Count 1 of Trafficking Heroin in the November 2020 indictment. Besides the prison time, probation and fine, he must also pay applicable surcharges associated with the fine and meet general and special conditions of probation.
On Count 3 in the same indictment citing Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent to Distribute, Martell received 25 years with 15 to serve, the time to run concurrent with his existing cases and Count 1.
On Count 5, Possession of a Schedule III Controlled Substance, Martell received a five-year prison sentence concurrent with the other counts and cases.
On Count 9, Interference with Government Property, he received another five year sentence in state prison, concurrent with the other counts and cases.
Count 20 stood alone to show Martell’s recidivist status.
All other counts were nolle prossed based on the negotiated plea, Sosebee said.
In regard to the previous, May 2017 indictment, Martell was sentenced on the Riot in a Penal Institution charge to five years in prison concurrent with the 2020 indictment and 12 months on probation for Battery.
Martell, 35 at the time of his September 2020 arrest by McCaysville police, had fled from Chief Mike Earley and now-Detective Cory Collogan when they attempted to stop him for a traffic violation.
He fled south on Blue Ridge Drive from the Pittman’s Florist parking lot and turned onto First Street. There, Collogan performed a ramming maneuver, which caused Martell to lose control and crash his 2004 Mercury Mountaineer.
After he was taken into custody, officers seized $2,308 in cash, an estimated 16 and 1/2 grams of heroin, almost ten grams of methamphetamine, a small amount of marijuana, assorted pills, and drug paraphernalia.