Brandy Odom’s Killer Studied Dexter: A True Crime Case

[0:12] On April 9th, 2018, a woman was walking her dog through Connercy Park in Brooklyn. [0:19] It was around 6 p.m. The spring evening was fading. Her dog stopped, pulled toward something in the bush near East 86th Street. What she found there would launch a six-year investigation, uncover an insurance scheme built on murder, and expose a killer who studied television shows to learn how to get away with it. He thought he'd learned everything he needed from watching Dexter. Oh, he was wrong. Three days after the murder, he would sit at his computer and watch the victim's mother cry on the evening news. [1:10] Before I begin, if you're new here, welcome to True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. I tell the stories that deserve to be told. And if you find value in what I do, please hit subscribe wherever you're listening. It helps more than you know. This case has received almost no podcast coverage. And I think that's a problem, because what happened to Brandi Odom, a 26-year-old Brooklyn woman with dreams of becoming a school safety officer, deserves to be remembered. Her story exposes how predators use control, how insurance fraud can mask murder, and how one killer's arrogance in studying crime TV shows ultimately sealed his conviction. [2:11] Hi, I'm Steve Rode. For 30 years, I worked as an investigative writer chasing financial criminals, from Ponzi schemers to corporate fraudsters. I also spent years in emergency services, two years as a police dispatcher, taking emergency calls, surveillance photography with local law enforcement, and chief pilot for public safety operations, flying search and rescue missions for police, fire, and state departments. Today's case is one that stayed with me, not just because of the violence. I've seen plenty of violence. though that violence was brutal and not just because of the calculation though that was chilling but because of how thoroughly documented it became through one man's own digital knowledge. [3:09] Corey Martin believed he could outsmart investigators by studying fictional crime shows. He watched Dexter to learn dismemberment techniques. He watched The First 48, actually a show that I love. He watched it to understand how police worked the critical first hours of a homicide investigation. According to co-conspirator testimony presented at trial, he was taking notes. But here's what Corey Martin didn't account for. Deleted internet searches can be recovered. Voice recordings can be analyzed. And the people you've terrorized for years will eventually find the courage to testify against you. This is the story of Brandy Odom. She deserves to be more than a case number. [4:11] Brandy Odom was 26 years old. She lived in Brooklyn with her mother, Nicole, and her two sisters, Asha and Alicia. According to her mother, Brandy liked to be her own boss. She moved out at 18 to pursue job training certificates to build her own life on her own terms. At the time of her death, she worked for a security company. But she had bigger plans, according to news reports from 2018. Brandy had recently received notification of a job interview. She wanted to become a school safety officer. I mean, think about that for a moment. This was a young woman who wanted to protect children, who wanted to stand in the halls of a school and make sure kids felt safe. Her mother, Nicole, would later tell reporters, according to ABC7 in New York, everybody loved her. I can't even see how one person would want to do this to her. [5:20] Brandy had a distinctive tattoo on her left breast One word Chocolate, It was this detail mentioned in news coverage That would allow her mother to identify her remains After what happens next, Look, one thing that's going to come up is that Brandy somehow got involved in sex work and I don't know how Brandy did get involved in sex work. The court records don't say. But her mother caught on and she tried to help. According to testimony, Nicole, Brandy's mother, moved Brandy to her sister Aisha's apartment in Brooklyn, hoping to get her away from that life. It was a mother's attempt to save her daughter, What Nicole didn't know Was that Adele Anderson A woman who would become central to everything that followed Lived right downstairs in the same building, Anderson was also doing sex work, Brandy and Anderson became friends They even moved in together. [6:44] Then in 2016, according to Anderson's testimony, they started using Corey Martin's house in Rosedale, Queens, for their work. And they started living with him. Martin became their pimp. He controlled their money, their movements, and their bodies. [7:05] And that's how Brandy Odom, a woman who still dreamed of becoming a school safety officer, ended up living under the control of a man who would eventually kill her for insurance money. [7:30] Corey Martin was 37 years old at sentencing. He lived in Rosedale, Queens, and according to court filings in the Eastern District of New York, he had operated as a pimp since his high school relationship with Adele Anderson. He controlled multiple women through sex trafficking, and according to prosecutors, he ran his household like a prison. Court documents describe the rules Martin enforced. Women in his household were not permitted to wear clothing inside the home. They were required to call him Daddy. And according to testimony, they needed his permission to shower, to eat, or to make any purchase. [8:25] All money earned through their sex work went to Martin. He controlled their bank accounts, their identification, and their bodies. According to government sentencing memorandum, Martin was 62 grand behind on his mortgage at the time of the murder. That financial pressure, prosecutors argued, became the motive for what came next. But the violence didn't begin with Brandy Odle. According to court filings, Martin's pattern of abuse against Adele Anderson was extensive and documented. In 2017, he slammed her leg into a refrigerator, fracturing her shin. She went to the hospital and lied about the source of her injury. Also in 2017, according to trial testimony, Martin handcuffed Anderson and raped her with objects. Hammers, broom handles, liquor bottles. At trial, Anderson described the physical reality of living with Martin. According to her testimony, she said, There was holes all in the walls throughout the house from me dodging the hits. [9:52] The violence extended to Anderson's children. At trial, the prosecutor asked Anderson how Martin would threaten her eight-year-old son. Her answer, according to the transcript, he would threaten him and put it in his mouth and tell him he would blow his fucking brains out if he kept running his mouth. Anderson described one incident. He put a gun in his mouth, told him to stop running his fucking mouth again, and what happens in this house stays in this house. Judge Donnelly would later say his sentencing, according to the transcript. A grown man punching an eight-year-old in the face, putting a gun in his mouth and threatening to blow his head off? It's stomach turning. On January 27, 2018, approximately two months before Brandy Odom's murder, Martin and Anderson argued about killing Odom. According to court filings, when Anderson hesitated, Martin slammed her head into a wall, pulled a knife, and threatened to kill her and her son by slitting their throats. Anderson was pregnant with Martin's child at the time. [11:14] This was the man behind the insurance scheme. [11:21] The plan began in March 2017, a full year before the murder. According to Department of Justice press releases, Martin and Anderson obtained two life insurance policies on Brandy Odom's life. $50,000 from Globe Life and $150,000 from American National. Anderson posed as Odom during the recorded phone applications. Her voice would later be matched through audio analysis. Total coverage? 200 grand. Anderson was named as the sole beneficiary. [12:06] But this wasn't Martin's first attempt. Court documents reveal he had previously called an insurance company to request policies on Anderson's children, ages 2 and 8. According to trial testimony, Martin could not stand looking at my children because they were not his. He wanted to make my son disappear or have a really bad accident. For the two-year-old, he suggested the child get hit by a car. Anderson refused. So Martin pivoted. According to trial testimony, he told Anderson that Brandy Odom was ideal because no one cared about her or would miss her. He called her nothing but a whore nobody loved. He was wrong about that, but he didn't know it yet. A text message recovered by investigators captures the timeline pressure. Anderson wrote And that policy is no longer gonna be active If I don't try to do something with that bitch this week The countdown to murder had begun. [13:28] In the weeks before the murder, Corey Martin and Adele Anderson sat together watching crime shows. Not for entertainment, but for education. At trial, prosecutors asked Anderson about this. The exchange from the court transcript says, Prior to Brandy's murder, what, if any, television was the defendant watching? He was watching the first 48 in Dexter. Did you watch it with him? Daily. Why? And Anderson's answer? He was prepping me for when Brandy died. [14:14] According to Anderson's testimony, they studied the first 48 to learn what not to do and what things to do to avoid being caught by the police. And Dexter? The prosecutor asked, what was the point of watching Dexter? And Anderson's answer? He was into it and he was looking for ways to commit the crime when he got rid of Brandy. [14:43] Martin was taking notes. And then came April 6th, 2018. At exactly 4.36 p.m., according to digital evidence presented at trial, Martin searched the Home Depot website. His search term? DeWalt 12-amp corded reciprocating saw. [15:10] At 5.52 p.m., one hour and 16 minutes later, he searched YouTube. Search terms later deleted but recovered by forensic investigators. How to insert blade for reciprocating saw. And using reciprocating saw. That evening, according to trial testimony, Martin made a cash purchase at the Valley Stream Home Depot. He bought a DeWalt reciprocating saw, five blades, black contractor garbage bags, and he was ready. Sometime in early April 2018, the exact date is not disclosed in public court records. But that's when Corey Martin strangled Brandy Odom to death in the bedroom of his Rosedale Queen's home. The cause of death, according to the medical examiner's findings, homicidal asphyxia. At trial, Anderson described what Martin told her about the killing. The prosecutor asked, Did he tell you whether or not he wore anything specific when he choked her to death? And Anderson answered, He wore his all-black jogging suit, and he wore rubber gloves that came up to his elbows. [16:36] Did he tell you why he wore those gloves? Yeah, because if she tried to scratch or anything, she wouldn't get any of his DNA and he didn't want to leave any prints around her neck. [16:51] He had planned for her to fight back. He had dressed for it. Anderson's testimony revealed something else Martin said afterward. According to the trial transcript, he said, This is the first time I've ever felt somebody's life leave their body. He said it like it was an observation, like it was interesting to him. [17:18] Brandy Odom did fight back. Judge Ann Donnelly, at sentencing, would note from the evidence, It takes a long time to strangle somebody. It's an agonizing death. This was a 26-year-old woman who had wanted to protect children for a living, who had a job interview scheduled, whose mother had tried to save her by moving her to a new apartment. But for Corey Martin, the murder was only the beginning. [17:51] And what came next was the technique he studied on television. At this point, Corey Martinhead strangled Brandy Odom to death in early April 2018. After spending a year setting up $200,000 in insurance policies, with Anderson posing as Odom on recorded calls, he bought that reciprocating saw, he watched the tutorials, and now he was about to put what he'd studied into practice. [18:25] What comes next is difficult to hear, I want to warn you. But I'm including it because it matters. Because the brutality of what Martin did to Brandy Odom's body is part of the evidence that convicted him. And because understanding what her family had to sit through during that trial is part of understanding their six-year fight for justice. [18:53] According to testimony from Adele Anderson Martin and Anderson prepared the bathroom Like a scene from that television show Dexter He had been watching, The prosecutor described it at trial According to the transcript They covered the ceiling They covered the bathroom The window in the bathroom The floor, the door The sink, the toilet, and the tub Everything thing. All of it lined with black garbage bags and duct tape. Floor to ceiling. Over the next two days, April 6th through April 8th, 2018, Martin dismembered Brandy Odom's body with the reciprocating saw he'd purchased hours after researching it online. According to Anderson's testimony, Martin wore a black jogging suit and Timberland boots during the process. Each time he left the bathroom, he stripped off the outfit to avoid tracking evidence through the house. [19:59] Anderson's trial testimony, quoted in court transcripts, describes the moment she discovered what was happening. She said, When I was sleeping with my daughter, I was in the middle of the night, like two in the morning, and I just heard something like a machine. So I woke up and stormed into the bathroom like, What the fuck are you doing? You're making a lot of noise. And when I opened the door I saw Brandy laid up in the tub and her arms were already cut off and it was sitting in a bag on the floor a garbage bag, a black garbage bag on the floor, and so when I walked in he was right like under the butt area where the thigh is, he was telling me this shit is hard I never chopped up a body before but this is like a meaty area trouble. [21:00] According to the government's sentencing memorandum, Odom's arms had been severed at the elbow. Both legs had been severed at the hips and knees. The bathroom wasn't the end. [21:16] I've spent 30 years investigating people who believe that they were smarter than the system. Ponzi schemers who studied other Ponzi schemes Convinced they found the formula that wouldn't collapse, Fraudsters who'd analyzed their predecessors' mistakes And believed they avoided the same fate And killers like Martin Who genuinely believed That preparation was the same thing as competence, Here's what they never account for. Television edits out the boring parts, the meticulous forensics, the digital archaeology, the patience of investigators who have seen every trick. Real investigations don't work on TV timelines. Real forensics don't miss what fiction conveniently overlooks. Martin deleted his YouTube searches for how to use a reciprocating saw. Investigators recovered them anyway. Martin paid cash at Home Depot. The purchase was still traced. Martin spent weeks preparing. He spent six years being proven wrong. The confidence that comes from studying crime, that's not education. That's arrogance dressed up as homework. [22:45] In the pre-dawn hours of April 8th and 9th, 2018. According to Anderson's testimony, she and Martin made two trips to Kennersey Park in Brooklyn. Anderson drove, and Martin rode in the back with garbage bags containing Brandy Odom's remains. According to testimony, before making the trips, Martin repaired a damaged bumper on the car, specifically so the vehicle would not stick out to anyone who might see it. He scattered her remains near East 86th Street and Seaview Avenue, the same neighborhood where he grew up. According to court filings, Martin's childhood home address was in Canercy. It was 1257, a number he used as the password for multiple accounts. [23:44] The torso, the arms, the legs All left in black garbage bags In the park where children walk past Every day According to trial testimony Martin left the body to be found deliberately, Anderson testified He wanted a body to be found Because he said if the body was not found That he could not collect the money, This was always about the insurance On April 9th, 2018, around 6 p.m., a woman named Patricia Smith was walking her dog through Canarsie Park. According to news reports from ABC7 New York, she found a human torso. The head was attached, face down, among leaves and twigs near the walking path. [24:35] The next day, April 10th, police recovered additional remains. Arms severed at the elbows. Legs cut at the hips. All in black garbage bags, scattered blocks from the initial discovery. Also recovered? A bloody DeWalt reciprocating saw, discarded in a trash can near the scene. Somewhere, Nicole Odom was wondering why her daughter hadn't called. Somewhere, two sisters were waiting to hear from Brandy. They didn't know yet that these remains, scattered in garbage bags in a public park, were all that was left of her. The victim had not yet been identified, but the news coverage was extensive. And someone was watching. Not just the coverage, but specifically, seeking out the grief. The killer wanted to see what he had caused. [25:42] If you're finding value in this story, if you believe cases like Brandy Odom's deserve to be told, consider subscribing to the podcast. Leave a review if you can. Share this episode with someone who appreciates true crime that goes beyond the headlines. Every subscription helps me keep doing this work. [26:06] Let me bring you back to where things stand. Brandy Odom's torso was discovered on April 9th. Her remains, severed at the elbows, hips, and the knees, were scattered across Cantersey Park. The reciprocating saw was found in a nearby trash can. And Corey Martin, the man who had just spent two days dismembering her body, he was about to learn that his plan was working. At trial, the prosecutor asked Anderson how the defendant found out about the body being discovered. On the news, Anderson said. Do you know how the defendant found out? He was watching the news. He's like, it's lit. He said, what, the prosecutor asked? It's lit. What does that mean? Anderson explained, lit meaning the body is found and that everything is about to start getting relevant. He was anticipating the police coming to his house. [27:14] Prosecutors said, what was his demeanor like? He was excited. Excited for what? Excited because he said they were going to cash out. [27:29] Over the next two days, April 10th and 11th, 2018, Martin was online, and according to digital evidence presented at trial, he conducted dozens of internet searches monitoring the news coverage. He searched, search area expands after dismembered body found in Canercy Park. He searched Twitter posts about pursing walking dog discovers remains. And then according to investigators, he found something on YouTube. An exclusive interview of mother of girl found in park. [28:10] Nicole Odom, Brandy's mother, speaking to reporters about losing her daughter. And Corey Martin, the man who had strangled Brandy to death, who spent two days sawing her body apart, who had scattered her remains in a public park. He sat at his computer and he watched the grieving mother cry. He was excited and he was ready to cash out. According to digital evidence, Martin also searched for reviews of luxury cars in the days after the murder He was already planning on how to spend that insurance money, On April 11, 2018, Nicole Odom was reading the news coverage about that body discovered in Canercy Park, According to reports from ABC7 New York, she saw a detail that made her blood run cold. A tattoo on the victim's left breast with one word, chocolate. That was how Nicole Odom learned her daughter was dead. She told reporters according to ABC7 New York, I just can't imagine what kind of pain she probably could have been going through with such a vicious act. [29:34] On April 12, 2018, a vigil was held at Cantersey Park. And according to news reports, approximately 100 people attended. The NYPD announced a $10,000 reward. And Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was there. Nicole Odom addressed the crowd. According to ABC7, she cried out, She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve the type of pain that you took her through. [30:07] She had a message for whoever had killed her daughter. According to ABC News, whoever did this to my daughter, I might not know who did it. The police might not know who did it. But the great God up above knows who did it. And you will be dealt with for your sins that you caused. Within weeks, police identified a person of interest. According to NY1 reporting from April 2018, officers visited Corey Martin's home. He was Brandy Odom's roommate, right? And then, according to court filings, Martin lawyered up. He stopped cooperating. The case went cold. For Nicole Odom, the silence was unbearable. She told the Amsterdam News in May 2018. I'm not hearing anything from any of them. I heard they had a suspect, but they let him go. It's been a month, and I think the work here is sloppy. [31:17] And then she asked a question that cut to the heart of the larger truth. According to the Amsterdam News, Nicole Odom said, If she was a little Caucasian girl, would the case move faster? The Nation of Islam got involved, according to news reports. Minister Mohammed intended to meet with law enforcement, noting that class and color is an issue. Meanwhile, Corey Martin and Adele Anderson moved to Trenton, New Jersey And according to the government's sentencing memorandum They still had the life insurance documents in their shared apartment, Martin, prosecutors said Wanted to continue to attempt to collect that money, Two and a half years passed And through all of it, Brandi Odom's life continued to matter. To her mother, to her sisters, to the community that had gathered at that vigil. [32:22] The case file might have gone quiet, but her family never did. [32:32] I need to sit with Nicole Odom's question for a moment. She asked whether the daughter's case would have moved faster if Brandy had been white. That's not an accusation. That's a mother's anguish filtered through generations of evidence that some victims get more attention than others. And it's a question that deserves a serious answer. Even if I'm not the one who can give it definitely. What I can tell you is this. As someone who worked in these systems as a dispatcher in law enforcement, I've seen how resources get allocated differently. I've watched cases where the victim was young and white and affluent get round-the-clock coverage, while other families wait by the phone. I'm not saying it's always about race. But I'm also saying it's never about race either. Nicole Odom waited six years for justice She identified her own daughter from a tattoo description in a newspaper She held a vigil She went to the press because she felt the police weren't telling her anything, She asked the question that so many black mothers have to ask, Would this have been different if my child looked different? [33:59] I can't answer that question, but I refuse to dismiss it. What I can tell you is this. The investigators who eventually broke this case did extraordinary work. The digital forensics, the voice analysis, the painstaking reconstruction of a timeline, their meticulous work, that's dedication. The FBI agents and the NYPD detectives who built this case deserve credit A lot of credit for what they accomplished, But it took two and a half years to make an arrest And six years to get a verdict, For Nicole Odom, that's six years of not knowing Then knowing Then waiting for accountability, That's too long At least it feels like it's too long And her question about why some families wait longer than others That's a conversation this country still needs to have. [35:05] By now, Nicole Odom had waited two and a half years She had identified her daughter from a tattoo description She'd held a vigil, she'd demanded answers Martin had lawyered up in the case of Gone Cold And in October 2020, something changed, In October 2020, about a week before the arrests Adele Anderson sat down with federal investigators for a voluntary interview. According to court documents, she told them Martin had strangled Odom and cut up her body with a saw. She admitted helping dispose of the remains. But she said she was terrified of Martin. [35:50] The FBI had been building a case for two years. Digital forensics. Voice analysis confirming Anderson had posed as Odom on the insurance applications. Cell phone records. The deleted YouTube searches. Recovered. On November 4, 2020, two and a half years, after Brandy Odom's torso was found in Canercy Park, FBI agents arrested both Corey Martin and Adele Anderson in Trenton, New Jersey. [36:25] Here's the key detail. They weren't initially charged with murder. The charges were wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. It was that insurance scheme. Murder charges would come later. Martin was detained without bail as a flight risk and danger to the community. Anderson was released on $200,000 bond with a GPS monitor. Nicole Odom had waited 936 days for an arrest. But the case was far, far from over. In September 2021, nearly a year after the arrests, Adele Anderson accepted a plea deal. According to DOJ press releases, she pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, identity theft, and wire fraud. But more importantly, she agreed to testify against Corey Martin. One month later, in October 2021, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment. [37:31] And for the first time, Corey Martin was charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. and the charges could put him away for life. [37:46] This is how federal cases often work. They start with the charges you can prove, the fraud, the identity theft. And they build towards murder, using the co-conspirator's testimony to close the case. [38:03] But Anderson's role creates complexity that deserves acknowledgement. She was both perpetrator and victim. She participated in the murder of Brandy Odom. She posed as Odom on insurance calls. She prepared the kill room. She drove the getaway car. But she was also, according to court records, subjected to years of horrific abuse at Martin's hands. Raped with objects, fractured bones, knives to her throat while pregnant, her children threatened with death. At Anderson's sentencing hearing, Judge Donnelly referenced a forensic psychological evaluation by Dr. Dawn Hughes. According to the sentencing transcript, Dr. Hughes concluded that Martin maintained power over Anderson through what experts call coercive control, sexual violence, threats, abuse of her children, intimidation, and isolation. Dr. Hughes went further. According to the court record, She found that by the time of the murder, Anderson had developed a condition known as trauma-coerced attachment and was highly, highly susceptible to Martin's trauma-coerced persuasion. [39:27] The probation office put it more simply in their report. Ms. Anderson would not have participated in this crime if not at Mr. Martin's behest. [39:41] That doesn't excuse what she did, no. But it explains why the government ultimately recommended probation for someone who had helped plan and cover the murder. The defense would later argue that it was actually Anderson who was the true mastermind and that she had killed Odom out of jealousy over Odom's sexual relationship with Martin. The jury would reject that defense, Let me reset the timeline November 2020, Martin and Anderson are arrested in Trenton September 2021, Anderson pleads guilty and agrees to testify And now, it's February 2024 nearly six years after Brandy Odom's body was discovered in Canarsie Park. And Martin is finally facing trial in Brooklyn Federal Court. The trial began in Brooklyn Federal Court in February 2024 before U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly. Prosecutors Tanya Hajar, Emily Dean, and Andy Palacio presented the government's case. Defense attorney Anthony Sissuti represented Corey Martin. [41:08] Anderson testified for approximately a day and a half. Press accounts described her testimony as providing stomach-churning detail about the murder and the dismemberment. By the way, if you're a subscriber at TrueCrimeUnheard.com, you received the actual court documents behind this case when i released this episode the sentencing transcript the government's memorandum the digital evidence exhibits that's what subscribers got you should subscribe. [41:45] Nicole Odom testified on the first day of trial. According to reports, she explained how she had tried to save her daughter by moving her to her sister's apartment, how she learned of her daughter's death from a newspaper description of a tattoo. Brandy couldn't be in that courtroom, but her family filled those seats for her. Her mother's testimony made sure the jury saw Brandy as a person, not just a case number, not just remains in a park. The jury heard the digital evidence. The 4.36 p.m. search for the reciprocated saw. The 5.52 p.m. YouTube tutorial. The post, murder news monitoring. The mother's grief interview watched by her daughter's killer. On March 4th, 2024 the jury returned its verdict guilty on all counts, Nicole Odom had waited six years six long years and she told reporters, I waited six years that's one monster that's off the street right now because that's what he is right now he's a monster he's a monster. [43:12] U.S. Attorney Breon Peace called it a ghastly, cold-blooded crime that was motivated by greed and executed after extensive planning. And then he said something that cut to the core of who Corey Martin was. Martin saw the victim as a moneymaker, trafficking her for commercial sex and then killing her with his bare hands, tossing out her strangulated body parts like trash so he could profit from her death. On November 6th, 2024, Corey Martin stood before Judge Ann Donnelly for sentencing. Before the judge spoke, Prosecutor Emily Dean addressed the court. According to the sentencing transcript, she said, In my career, two-thirds of which has all been homicide work. This is the worst case I've ever seen. This is the most brutal case. From the strangulation to the sexual assault that was designed to make it look like a customer killed Brandy. To the gratuitous dismemberment meant to throw law enforcement off the track. To the premeditation, which was stunning in this case, over a year of planning. [44:36] And then Judge Donnelly addressed Martin directly. According to the transcript, You did not see her as a human being who deserved basic respect and dignity. You made her work for you. You took control over her, her bank account, her identification. And then you murdered her and you strangled her. And the evidence shows that she fought you back. It takes a long time to strangle somebody. It's an agonizing death. And then you murdered her. You brutalized her body and discarded her as though she was just garbage. [45:21] She continued, There is not a shred of evidence in the record that you ever had a single second thought about what you were doing. Not once during those months and months of planning. No suggestion that you had a pang of conscience. Any regret for what you were going to do or after you did it. And then the judge said something that will stay with me. I am confident that you would do this again If you were given the opportunity, Judge Donnelly sentenced Corey Martin To life in federal prison Plus, two years to run consecutively But the legal battle Wasn't over. [46:14] There's a statement from the U.S. attorney That I keep coming back to He said, according to the DOJ press release, the defendant believed he could thwart law enforcement and cover up this heinous crime by relying on television shows about murder, but the investigatory efforts of law enforcement brought him to justice. Corey Martin studied Dexter. He learned how to line a room with plastic. He learned how to dispose of a body. But he didn't learn that real forensic investigators Don't work on TV timelines, He didn't learn that deleted searches live on servers He didn't learn that the people you abuse for years Will eventually turn on you, And he didn't learn the most important lesson of all That Brandy Odom had people who loved her Who would fight for her and who would wait six years if that's what it took. [47:20] He called her nothing but a whore who nobody loved. But her mother was there for every day of that trial. Her family packed that courtroom. And when that verdict came down, Nicole Odom called him what he was. A monster. [47:41] Let me bring you to where this story ends. March 2024. The jury found Corey Martin guilty on all counts. November 2024 He stood before Judge Donnelly for sentencing. Life in prison plus two years. But before the judge delivered that sentence, Nicole Odom finally got to speak directly to the man who had killed her daughter. According to the sentencing transcript, she addressed Corey Martin directly. [48:17] Corey, I only have one question for you. And why is not it? But rather, do you know what it feels like for a mother to lose her child? I cry every minute, every hour, every night, and every day. I, as a mother, will never witness Brandy get married, have kids, or meet her new niece. I no longer have that privilege to hear her say Happy Mother's Day or just to see her and hear her voice. She described her dreams. The good days when she can see her daughter, touch her, hear her laughing, and the bad days when she wakes up and the reality hits. She said, I just want my brandy back. But I know in my heart, that's not possible. [49:18] And then Nicole Odom said this, according to the transcript. Corey, I may forgive you one day because I know that is what Brandy would want, because that was the kind of person she was. But today will not be that day. May God have mercy on your soul, because I do not. When it was Martin's turn to speak the judge asked him directly Mr. Martin is there anything you want to say and according to the transcript his answer no your honor, Nicole Odom poured out six years of grief Corey Martin said nothing. [50:12] But Judge Donnelly had something else to say according to the transcript she told Morton, but you are wrong about Brandy having no one and I do want to take this time to acknowledge the people who loved her and cared for her, her mother, her sister all of these people who attended every day of this trial, and to endure hearing and seeing what you did to their child, their sister, their family member, their friend. And she continued, even her customers who said she was a good person. She had plans. She had dreams. And the people who investigated this case, the police officers, detectives, agents, and prosecutors who spent years leaving no stone unturned to gather the evidence that would bring Brandy's killer to justice. Brandy mattered to them, too. [51:14] The legal aftermath continues. On November 15, 2024, just after the sentencing, Corey Martin filed an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. His lawyers argue the federal murder-for-hire statute was the wrong charge. As of December 2025, when I'm recording this, that appeal remains pending. And Adele Anderson, the co-conspirator who testified against Martin, received her sentence in August of 2025. Probation. No prison time. According to court records, the government acknowledged that Anderson was a victim of horrifically abusive, long-term domestic violence. And Judge Donnelly told Anderson at her sentencing, Corey Martin was a remorseless killer who would have killed anyone to get what he wanted. Eventually, he probably would have killed you too. [52:22] Justice in this case was complicated. It took six years it required one victim of abuse to testify against her abuser. And even now, with Martin behind bars, the legal questions continue. But for Nicole Odom, who waited six years, who sat through every day of that trial, who listened to the details of what was done to her daughter, the verdict still stands. Guilty. [52:55] And Brandy Odom's story finally has been told. [53:03] Thank you for listening to True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. If this episode meant something to you, please subscribe. Leave a review. Share it with someone who values stories that honor the victims. I'm Steve Rode. Stay curious. Stay safe. Stay subscribed. Bye.