Left: Clarence Martin Jr. during his 2020 arrest (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department). Right: London Martin (GoFundMe).
A Nevada man who threw his 7-week-old daughter off a balcony and set his apartment on fire will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Clarence Martin Jr., aged 37, was convicted by a jury in October 2024, four years after he threw his newborn baby girl, London, off the second-floor balcony of their shared apartment, resulting in her death.
Martin’s defense team claimed he was undergoing a mental health crisis at the time and requested a life sentence with the chance of parole after 25 years. However, District Judge Carli Kierny opted to sentence Martin to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after almost 50 years, aligning with the prosecution’s recommendation. Judge Kierny described the case as “the most gruesome I’ve encountered. It is truly baffling.”
As detailed in the arrest report, the baby’s mother informed the authorities that in the days before the tragic incident on October 24, 2020, Martin had not slept or eaten. Allegedly, while in bed, Martin began kicking both her and the infant, who was nearly two months old. Although she tried to relocate herself and London to another room, Martin seized the baby and threw her off the balcony. Subsequently, the mother discovered her infant daughter in the parking lot of the apartment complex and alerted emergency services.
As the mother was calling for help, Martin reportedly set the living room ablaze, killing the family’s pet poodle, before running out of the apartment where a neighbor reportedly overheard him saying “Burn, (expletive) burn. This is what you get for cheating on me.” He then got in his car and drove off as Las Vegas police responded to the scene.
Martin then led police on a wild car chase that resulted in three different crashes before he ultimately abandoned the car at a nearby airport. Martin then reportedly went inside the airport and got onto a luggage conveyor belt that transported him to the tarmac, where he was finally arrested.
Martin was taken to a hospital for injuries he sustained during the crashes as well as a drug evaluation and was booked in absentia for open murder, animal cruelty, and arson.
His defense attorney Betsy Allen argued that Martin was suffering from a mental health episode and was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Allen said her client “has very little memory of that evening, but I can tell the court that what he does remember is that he thought he was in a movie. That’s how delusional he was at the time of this crime.”
Martin was convicted of a total of 13 felony charges including open murder, animal cruelty, arson, two counts of child abuse, and several counts of battery related to the police chase that ensued after the initial crime.
London’s mother, who was in the courtroom for Martin’s sentencing, told the judge, “He just needs help.”
