Murder trial for Church Hill man set for March in Scott County, Virginia

A Hawkins County, Tennessee man accused in a 2018 murder in Scott County, Virginia is set for trial.

Official records show motions to grant bond to John Robert Martin, Jr., were denied in Circuit Court and a judge has scheduled Martin’s murder case to go before a jury for a week-long trial beginning March 1, 2021.

Martin, 46, of Church Hill, has already been sentenced in Tennessee on a charge of aggravated kidnapping. Police said Martin held his wife at gunpoint at their home in Carters Valley after he killed Nicholas Pierce, 20, in the nearby Yuma community.

Investigators said the couple was in the process of divorcing and Martin’s wife was reportedly in a romantic relationship with Pierce.

(MUGSHOT: SWVRJ)