Hearing continued for man accused of killing girl, 12
A preliminary hearing into rape and abuse of a corpse charges filed against a Fayette County man, who has already been ordered to stand trial for allegedly killing the 12-year-old victim in Greene County, has been continued. The hearing on the latest charges that state police at Waynesburg filed against Jeffrey Robert Martin, 49, of New Geneva was scheduled for today before Magisterial District Judge Lee Watson.
It has been rescheduled to 10:30 a.m. Sept. 20 in the Greene County Courthouse.
Martin’s hearing in June into charges of homicide, aggravated assault and four counts of tampering with evidence in the strangulation death of Gabrielle Miranda Bechen of Dunkard Township also was relocated from Watson’s office to the courthouse because of the large number of people who attended.
Watson held those charges for court and returned Martin to prison without bail.
Last week, police filed charges of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, aggravated incident assault, sexual assault and abuse of a corpse against Martin. He was arraigned and bail for those charges was set at $500,000 cash.
Martin was arrested June 17 after a five-day search for Bechen who was last seen riding an all-terrain vehicle near a farm where Martin worked as a caretaker.
He told police that he panicked after Bechen rode to the farm and said she was going to tell her parents that he molested her.
After grabbing her arm, Martin said the girl ran, but fell down in the driveway. He said he then choked her.
Martin confessed and led police to where he buried the girl after volunteers found the all-terrain vehicle Bechen was riding buried in a pile of manure off of a horse trail near the Mount Joy Road farm.