Man sent to prison for brutally beating landlady

SALT LAKE CITY — Arthel Martin on Friday faced the elderly woman he beat nearly to death and apologized profusely and emphatically for what he had done.

But while his victim thanked him for apologizing and encouraged him to make something of his life, her daughter was focused on the objective of the sentencing hearing.

"I'm glad he apologized, but I don't bear any weight on it," Lynda Bagley said. "What he's done was pure evil and, for the sake of society, please give him prison time."

Third District Judge Katie Bernards-Goodman did just that, sentencing Martin, 45, to three years to life in prison for attempted murder, a first-degree felony, in connection with the brutal New Year's Day beating of his then-landlady, 86-year-old Anne Smart-Pearce.

Martin pleaded guilty to the charge in October, admitting that he viciously beat Smart-Pearce, leaving her for dead. Two other tenants heard the woman's cries for help and said they found Martin in her bedroom standing over her body. He fled the scene with the woman's purse and cell phone, but eventually turned himself in to police in California. Additional charges of aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, and abuse of a vulnerable adult, a Class A misdemeanor, were dismissed in exchange for Martin's guilty plea.

Though police said Smart-Pearce was in "extremely critical condition" when she was transported to the hospital, she survived the attack.

Smart-Pearce entered the courtroom with a walker and listened to the proceedings with the aid of a hearing set. When Martin asked if he could face her and direct his comments toward her, she agreed to allow that.

"First of all, I want to say I'm sorry," Martin said. "You are a fantastic woman and you have a heart of gold and no one can take that from you. I couldn't. It was a senseless crime."

He continued to apologize multiple times before closing with: "You're the best."

Smart-Pearce then responded and thanked Martin for the apology. She said that her hope for him is that he repents, accepts Jesus Christ and becomes a "model prisoner."

"I'm going to pray," she said. "I'm going to pray every day."

Martin's attorney Michael Peterson asked that the judge consider alternatives to prison, citing Martin's relatively minor criminal history and attributing the attack to "heavy intoxication and deep-seated depression."

Prosecutor Greg Ferbrache called the attack "a deliberate, intentional act." He said Martin tried to strangle Smart-Pearce and, if not for the other tenants hearing the commotion, the end result could have been much different. Even now, the results have "diminished" the woman's independence, he said.

Bernards-Goodman agreed with Ferbrache's argument that Martin poses a threat to society if released and imposed prison time in light of the "seriousness" and "senselessness" of what happened.

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