When Randall Earl Martin was booked at the Flagler County jail last Wednesday night on aggravated battery and domestic assault charges in an incident involving his wife, the judge set conditions if he were to post bail: surrender all firearms, and have no contact with the alleged victim. But in the patrol car on the way to jail, Martin told the deputy that his wife (he referred to her by a sexist expletive) “will know hurt when I get out.”
During the incident he had allegedly pointed a 12-gauged shotgun at his wife and pulled the trigger. His wife heard the click. The weapon was not loaded.
The next day he posted bail on $35,000 bond–and immediately violated the no-contact order. He was back at the county jail on Friday, his bond revoked.
The original incident had started on Dec. 6 as the couple was arguing over financial issues. When Martin’s wife was in the yard gardening at 49 Burnside Drive, she told sheriff’s deputies, he came at her brandishing a machete about 8 to 10 inches long, with a serrated silver-edged blade. Deputies would later find it sheathed on the floor in the house. Martin’s wife said she saw what she described as a “shiny blade” before he struck her, then chased her around the yard with it. When deputies interviewed her, she had no signs of injuries and would not show them if she had any. But deputies found blood on the outside of the master bedroom door.
She escaped into the house and called her daughter to tell her what happened. Martin walked in and started screaming and cursing out both his wife an daughter. The daughter then called 911. Martin, 79, left the room, picked up the shotgun, returned, pointed it at his wife, pulled the trigger, then tore up the bedroom. His wife took refuge in a bathroom closet and feared he’d return with the weapon loaded. That’s where deputies found her when they responded. “Why does this happen to me,” she told deputies, crying and shaking.
Martin had been in front of the house when deputies arrived. He complied with commands, walking backward toward them so he could be handcuffed and placed in a patrol vehicle. He was booked at the jail that night, kept until the following afternoon, and released at 1 p.m. on Thursday. That evening, he went to the Burnside Drive house. His wife was in the driveway, troubleshooting something with her car–she suspected he’d damaged it on purpose–when a car with its high beams pulled up and stopped at the end of the driveway. She shined her flashlight at the driver and recognized Martin. She asked him if he had tampered with the car. He said he had not. She told him he was not allowed to be there. Martin drove on.
The next day deputies located Martin’s vehicle on U.S. 1 in Bunnell and pulled him over. He happened to have a suspended driver’s license. He said the night before he’d intended to see his friend, who lives on Burnside Drive as well. His friend wasn’t home, so he stopped in front of his own house and spoke to his wife. He was rearrested. He remains at the county jail.
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Road Rage Incident on Belle Terre Parkway
In yet another road rage incident involving a firearm, Dudley Sebert Buchanan, a 38-year-old Palm Coast resident, faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly brandishing a gun on Belle Terre Parkway and Central Avenue Saturday (Dec. 9). The man who reported the incident–he was Buchanan’s target–had two children in the car.
The incident took place in mid-afternoon on Belle Terre Parkway. According to the alleged victim, Buchanan had twice changed lanes in front of him without using his signal. As the two cars were stopped at a traffic light, the man told Buchanan his signal may not be working. Buchanan got out of his car and was seen in his beige suit confronting the other driver from near his car, a sequence captured on traffic cameras.
Buchanan got back in his car and held a gun in his right hand while he steered it and addressed the other man through the two vehicles’ open windows, saying something to the effect of “what’s your problem.”
Buchanan told deputies he never pointed the gun at the other man or his car, keeping it instead in the area of the steering wheel. His wife said he never made any threatening statements. Buchanan, a 59-year-old resident of 38 Rolling Sands Drive in Palm Coast, was booked at the Flagler County jail on three third-degree felony charges and released on $9,000 bond.
