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Man Allegedly Throws Infant Daughter Off Second-Floor Balcony During Argument With Girlfriend
Clarence Martin Jr. is alleged to have thrown his 2-month-old child to her death before setting fire to the family's apartment.
A Nevada man has been arrested after allegedly throwing his infant daughter to her death from second-floor balcony during a fight with the child’s mother.
Clarence Martin Jr., 32, has been charged with open murder, animal cruelty, and arson in relation to the violent incident, which took place in the early morning hours of Oct. 24, the Las Vegas Police Department said in a press release. Martin is alleged to have been arguing with his girlfriend, the child’s mother, when he grew angry and took the 2-month-old baby to their second-story balcony and threw the child, according to police. When officers, who were called to the home at around 3:41 a.m., arrived on the scene, they found the mother outside, performing CPR on the baby. Martin, meanwhile, had allegedly started a fire inside of the apartment that left their dog dead and the home badly damaged. He fled the scene in a car.
The child was rushed to Saint Rose Sienna Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. While the release does not state the child’s name, the victim has since been identified as London Martin, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The child died of blunt force trauma to the head after plummeting more than 22 feet in what the coroner’s office has concluded was a homicide, the the reports, citing an arrest report.
Martin was eventually arrested at an airport, after having gotten into a traffic accident, police said. That crash, a “hit-and-run,” took place outside of the apartment complex when he tried to flee, police told the Review-Journal.
The child’s mother, Nicole Poole, told police that Martin, with whom she’d been in a relationship for four years, had a history of mental illness, but she hadn’t noticed anything off about his mental health until the current month, according to an arrest report obtained by the Review-Journal. She reportedly told police that, in the days leading up to Saturday’s tragic events, Martin did not eat or sleep for days, and on the day of her daughter's murder, she woke up to him kicking both her and the baby.
Following his arrest, Martin was hospitalized and booked in absentia, according to police.
