Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images On Saturday, passengers of an American Airlines subsidiary received some, well, surprising news while waiting to board their flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky. Their pilot had been arrested — for murder, CNN reports. Pilot Christian Richard Martin, 51, was arrested for the November 2015 deaths of a couple — Calvin and Pamela Phillips — and their neighbor Edward Dansereau in Pembroke, Kentucky. According to CNN, Calvin Phillips was found shot to death at his home, while the bodies of his wife and Dansereau were found in Pamela Phillips’s burned car in a corn field several miles away, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said. Although Martin was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday, he was not arrested until he was at the airport on Saturday morning. His indictment — which includes three counts of murder, one count of arson, one count of attempted burglary, and three counts of tampering with evidence — was reportedly sealed until he was taken into custody. Martin’s former attorney told CNN that the pilot would have turned himself in had he known an arrest was imminent. He has reportedly been placed on an administrative suspension. Passengers of Martin’s scheduled flight were, understandably, shocked by the turn of events. Frances Wise told WDRB that her fellow passengers knew something was off while they were waiting to board: “It was very tense. I think it was very tense. You could tell the employees knew something was going on.” Then, they were told the pilot had been arrested — though they didn’t learn it was for murder until later in the day. Wise and her daughter made it to Charlotte, but they missed their connecting flight to St. Lucia. “We’re inconvenienced a lot,” Wise said. “Like missed an entire day of a vacation that’s been planned and saved for for an entire year.” Well, this certainly puts our airport travel annoyances in perspective.<doc-sep>A pilot for an American Airlines subsidiary has been arrested for the alleged murder of three people in 2015, reported CNN. Christian Richard Martin, a pilot for PSA Airlines, which is owned by American Airlines, was arrested at Louisville International Airport just before a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina he was scheduled to fly, according to CBS News. Martin has been accused of the murder of Calvin Phillips, his wife Pamela Phillips, and their neighbor Edward Dansereau in November 2015, said Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear. Calvin Phillips was found shot to death in his home in Pembroke, Kentucky, while Pamela Phillips and Edward Dansereau were found in a burnt-out car a few miles away, CNN reported. A grand jury has indicted Martin on three counts of murder, one count of arson and attempted arson, plus several counts of burglary and evidence tampering, according to CNN. It’s unclear as to what Martin’s motive could have been or how the police came to suspect him, but it’s apparent that this is not his first problem with the law. According to CNN, after serving in the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and active duty over 30 years, Martin was given a dismissal notice (which is the same as a dishonorable discharge) in August 2016 for two counts of mishandling classified information and of assault on a child under the age of 16, CNN reported. Phillips was apparently scheduled to testify against Martin during the hearings when he and his wife were killed. Questions are now being raised as to how Martin was able to obtain a job as a pilot for an American Airline's subsidiary. Martin joined PSA Airlines in early 2018 and apparently passed criminal background checks for new employees. It’s possible that certain checks may not have red-flagged his past military charges, according to CBS News. “All of us at American Airlines and PSA Airlines are deeply saddened to have learned about these allegations from 2015. Our team was made aware of the indictment this morning after his arrest at Louisville International Airport,” American Airlines said in a statement. “We have an unwavering commitment to the safety and security of our customers and team members, and we will provide any investigative assistance possible to law enforcement throughout their investigation.” In a statment released from the attorney general's office, the family said, “We look forward to justice in court, and we look forward to a verdict to bring an end to this terror, and a fresh start at healing.”<doc-sep>The airline pilot arrested over the weekend and accused of killing three people in Kentucky in 2015 had said in an interview months later that he had no motive for the murders since one of his alleged victims was his "star defense witness" in a sexual assault court-martial he was facing. PSA Airlines pilot Christian Richard Martin, 51, was arrested Saturday at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport and charged with three counts of murder, one of arson, one of attempted arson, burglary in the first degree and three counts of tampering with physical evidence. He is accused of murdering his neighbors, married couple Calvin and Pamela Phillips, and Edward Dansereau. Calvin Phillips was found fatally shot at his home in Pembroke, Kentucky, Attorney General Andy Beshear said Saturday. The bodies of Pamela Phillips and Dansereau were found in Calvin Phillips' car, which had been set on fire in a cornfield a few miles away from the couple's home, he said. Calvin and Pamela Phillips were murdered in 2015. Courtesy of Matthew Phillips Following the murders, Martin, who goes by "Kit" and served in the Army from 1986 to 2016, was grilled by military investigators, and his house was raided by a SWAT team, according to NBC affiliate WSMV. He was eventually released and later moved to North Carolina. In April of 2016, he was interviewed by WSMV, and said he had no concern he would be held responsible for the murders because he actually needed Calvin Phillips to testify for him in an upcoming court-martial he was facing in which his ex-wife, Joan Harmon, had accused him of physical and sexual abuse and mishandling classified military materials. The court-martial found Martin guilty of two counts of mishandling classified information and assault on a child under the age of 16, an Army statement said. He was punitively dismissed from the Army, forfeited all pay and allowances and was sentenced to be confined for 90 days. Martin had served in the Army Reserve from 1986 to 1990, on active duty from 1990 to 1993, in the Army National Guard from 1993 to 2005 and on active duty again from 2005 until he was dismissed in August 2016. Martin said in the April 2016 interview with WSMV that he suspected Harmon had been involved in a long-term affair with Calvin Phillips. "Everyone in town knew what was going on while I was at work every day," Martin said. "They were together all day long, and they didn’t really try to hide it or anything like that." But Martin said he wasn't jealous. In fact, he was grateful to Phillips. Martin and Harmon had their marriage voided about three years before the November 2015 murders, after he had learned Harmon was actually married to another man. "I just call her the ex-bigamist," Martin said in the 2016 interview. Phillips "had gotten me out of this huge mess. I had moved on." When Martin and Harmon split, she had promised him "I will ruin your career, I will ruin your life, I know how to do it," he said. She then accused him of rape, sodomy, child abuse, child molestation, and stealing a military computer, Martin said. Harmon also "went to the FBI and told them I was an international spy, which is, I know, crazy," Martin said, adding that Phillips had accompanied her to make that accusation. "I think his motivation was if I get this guy out of the picture, then I can keep this mistress across the street," Martin said. Several attempts to reach Harmon for comment were unsuccessful. Harmon told WSMV in 2016 that she never had an affair with Phillips, and while she admitted to pleading guilty to bigamy, she did so because she couldn’t afford an attorney. Before he was found guilty in his court-martial, Martin had hired private investigators to help him build a defense. They interviewed Phillips, who said he thought Martin had stolen an Army laptop, according to Martin and tapes of the interviews obtained by WSMV. Phillips said he found the computer when he was helping Harmon clear her stuff out of Martin's house. But Phillips also told investigators that Harmon had never said she or her children were abused by Martin. He was scheduled to testify before the court-martial for both Martin and the military, according to WSMV. Martin said he considered Phillips an asset in his case. "He was my star defense witness," he said. "My private investigator went through all the allegations with him ... and just went down the whole line and just refuted everything. And I was like, I’m golden." Christian Richard Martin Christian County Detention Center "And the other thing he had done for me was he had gotten me out of this bigamist relationship. This woman had basically been milking me for eight years, and I didn’t know it. And so I owed him for that really," Martin said in the interview. The family of Calvin and Pamela Phillips have long contested that Martin didn't have a motive to kill the couple. "I think that notion of this star witness thing is absurd,” Calvin Phillip's sister, Diana Phillips, told WSMV in 2017. "My parents died for this court-martial," the Phillips' son, Matt Phillips, said Monday. "My father was a federal witness. This was an attack not only on my family but on the entire justice system," he said. Christian Martin was arrested at Louisville Airport in connection to a 2015 triple murder case. Courtesy of Tucker Richardson When asked by WSMV in April 2016 who would have killed the Phillips and Dansereau, Martin suggested Phillips had dealings in a brothel and had been using drugs. "He was passed out in the road, OD’d like a couple months before the murders too," Martin said. "If I had wanted to kill him, that would have been a great time to do it, you know, I could’ve just run him over. He was just sitting out there," Martin told WSMV. No evidence has been presented to support Martin's claims.<doc-sep>Mr. Martin has denied involvement in the three killings. His lawyer, Michael Thompson, said his client would plead not guilty at an arraignment next week and questioned why an indictment would come so long after the crime. “That’s what we’re all curious about,” he said. “What evidence do they have that they didn’t have almost four years ago?” The arrest on Saturday was unusual in part because of its setting. Learning that a pilot had been arrested in a murder case put some passengers in the Louisville airport on edge. “I felt like it was a little chaotic and unorganized,” Ashley Martin, who had been waiting to board a flight at the time of the arrest, told WDRB, a local television station. “You could feel that energy. You could feel the tension from flight attendants.” Mr. Martin has made headlines before, and his case has a complicated history. In 2015, Mr. Martin, a combat veteran, was fighting his dismissal from the United States Army in a military court case that became well known among certain circles, including men’s rights groups. Mr. Phillips had been expected to serve as a witness in that case — until he was found dead. The military case began when a woman told the authorities that Mr. Martin had mishandled classified information, according to past and present lawyers for Mr. Martin. He has said that he thought the woman was his wife until he learned she was already married to someone else, and that she had also had an affair with Mr. Phillips. The accusations against Mr. Martin eventually led to his dismissal from the Army, where he had served as an aviation pilot with a rank of major. (A dismissal is like a dishonorable discharge, but for officers.) He fought that dismissal, even as the case grew to include charges that he had sexually assaulted a child.<doc-sep>
An airline pilot was arrested Saturday at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport after he was charged in the 2015 murders of three people. A Christian County, Kentucky, grand jury charged Christian Richard Martin with three counts of murder, one of arson, one of attempted arson, burglary in the first degree and three counts of tampering with physical evidence. The indictment was unsealed Saturday after Martin's arrest. Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said Saturday that Martin was responsible for the 2015 murders of Calvin and Pamela Phillips and their neighbor Edward Dansereau. Calvin Phillips was found fatally shot at home in Pembroke, Kentucky, Beshear said in a video Saturday. The bodies of Pamela Phillips and Dansereau were found in Calvin Phillips' vehicle, which had been set on fire in a corn field a few miles away from the couple's residence, he said. ​Crystal Staley, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Attorney General's office, said prosecutors could not yet discuss a possible motive. The office took over the case in 2017 after the Phillips' son, Matt Phillips, came to Beshear and expressed fear that the investigation had gone cold. Christian Richard Martin Christian County Detention Center Prosecutors zeroed in on Martin, who had moved from the jurisdiction of the case, Christian County, Kentucky, to North Carolina, Beshear said. "Today is an indictment and there will be many steps from here," the attorney general said. "But we hope this is one of example of when you never stop seeking justice, when you never give up on a case, that we can truly get important results for our families." Relatives of the victims said in a statement Saturday that they have been "haunted by what was done to them and haunted further that someone was still free to do as they wish, beyond the civility of mankind or laws of our nation." "We look forward to a verdict to bring an end to this terror, and a fresh start at healing," they said. Martin worked for PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, for slightly more than a year, American said in a statement. He was arrested as he prepared to fly as first officer on Flight 5523 from Louisville to Charlotte, North Carolina, the airline said. Martin was grounded and placed on "administrative suspension" pending the outcome of the case, American said. "We have an unwavering commitment to the safety and security of our customers and team members, and we will provide any investigative assistance possible to law enforcement throughout their investigation," the airline said.