Martha Pineda

Case record: Martha Pineda

Background

Martha Pineda was accused of drugging and smothering her 27-year-old lover, Ilya Nudmanov. Pineda was 47. Polena Nudmanov was Ilya Nudmanov’s mother. Ilya Nudmanov’s decaying body was found in December 2003.

Pineda and Nudmanov shared an apartment in Coral Springs.

The offence

Prosecutors said jealousy drove Pineda to drug and kill Nudmanov. They said she slipped him a fatal dose of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and then smothered him with her open palm.

The defence said Nudmanov’s death was caused by an overdose and not murder. The defence attorney, Fred Haddad, argued that because of Pineda’s intoxicated state she was unable to form the intent to commit a crime. Haddad added that Nudmanov could have taken the Xanax to get high or commit suicide.

Prosecutors argued that Nudmanov’s body condition reeked of foul play and that Pineda’s actions showed intention. Assistant State Attorney David Frankel described Pineda’s conduct as purposeful, willful and deliberate.

Investigation

An anonymous 911 call led police to the Coral Springs apartment Pineda and Nudmanov shared.

Police discovered Nudmanov’s nude body, bound in chains and crammed into a Rubbermaid container. The body was described as decaying. Police and officials found the apartment had circumstances presented as attempts to hide the body, including incense and scented candles and cardboard boxes stacked on top of the container, with the container taped shut. A comforter was described as draped over the container.

A Broward County Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Michael Bell, testified there was no physical evidence that Pineda cut off Nudmanov’s air supply.

Harold Schueler, chief toxicologist for the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office, testified that the amount of Xanax in Nudmanov’s system—between 44 milligrams and 64 milligrams—was consistent with recorded suicide cases. Under Haddad’s questioning at a hearing, Bell testified that it was unclear how Nudmanov took the Xanax. Authorities believed Nudmanov broke off his one-year relationship with Pineda on Dec. 9, the night before he was last seen alive.

Authorities also described that, in the days after Nudmanov’s death, Pineda offered explanations for his disappearance, including telling Nudmanov’s employer he was sick, telling her 16-year-old son he went to drug rehabilitation, and telling Nudmanov’s mother he had run off with another woman.

Arrest and surrender

Pineda surrendered to police after an arrest warrant was issued on the strength of an affidavit from a Coral Springs Police detective.

Police spokesman Sgt. Rich Nicorvo described that the investigation stretched over three months, during which detectives interviewed people and waited for toxicology results.

Trial

The jury convicted Pineda of premeditated first-degree murder.

The prosecutor David Frankel presented the theory that Pineda committed the murder out of jealousy because Nudmanov was infatuated with another, younger woman.

Frankel told jurors that Pineda filled a 90-pill Xanax prescription two days before Nudmanov’s death, went to work the day after he died and told co-workers she needed to leave early because Nudmanov was sick, used a ruse to lure her brothers and son to her home, and then tried to persuade them to help her. Frankel also said she sent her brothers to Home Depot.

Frankel argued that she went to great lengths to try to hide the body and that she had the consciousness of guilt.

Frankel used a sequence of actions and described what jurors could consider deliberate: he said she was committing purposeful, willful, deliberate actions, and he said her behaviour did not resemble someone in a hypnotic or zombie state.

Defense attorney Fred Haddad offered an account of a woman delusional from vast dosages of prescription medications who could not remember anything from the week of Nudmanov’s death. Haddad argued that due to her intoxicated state, Pineda was unable to form the intent to commit a crime.

Haddad said:

"It's absurd to suggest that she's going to have a premeditated design to kill a person and not have a way to dispose of the body"

Haddad also said:

"They have no murder if you read the medical examiner's report."

Frankel responded by highlighting questions jurors would not have answers for:

"There are certain things we are never going to know" "What were the chains for?" "Exactly how did she give him the Xanax?" "Why? How?" "At the end of this case, we will know that she just did for whatever reason."

Pineda testified that she was too intoxicated to form intent and presented her account through the defence theory of impairment by prescription medications.

Sentencing

Broward Circuit Judge Stanton Kaplan sentenced Pineda to life in prison without parole on March 20, 2007.

Before sentencing, Kaplan had been described as set to sentence Pineda on Monday to life in prison without parole.

Outcome

Pineda was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder.

Her sentence was life in prison without parole.

Aftermath and related proceedings

Court proceedings included witness testimony from Pineda’s brothers and her oldest son.

A witness and family account described how Pineda asked her brothers to help dispose of the body after confessing to smothering Nudmanov with her open palm.

Emilio Fernandez testified that Pineda told her brothers she had killed Nudmanov because he threatened to harm Pineda’s 16-year-old son if she kicked Nudmanov out.

Emilio Fernandez and Luis Fernandez made a trip to a nearby Home Depot to buy items at Pineda’s request: a drop cloth, duct tape and a 55-gallon Rubbermaid container.

Emilio Fernandez said they made the excursion without asking Pineda what the supplies were for:

"She didn't say, and I didn't ask" "It could have been for anything. I didn't want to know ... I thought she might need to organize. There was stuff all over the house."

A male juror snickered at the “need to organize” comment.

Emilio Pineda, 19 and Pineda’s son, testified that the last time he saw Nudmanov alive, they played video games together on the couch and Nudmanov appeared in an altered state:

"He appeared to be very in an altered state" "He couldn't concentrate, his speech was slurred." "He stood up to go to the kitchen and he was woozy."

Pineda’s psychiatrist employer, Ethan Kass, was described as president of the Broward County Psychiatric Society.

Kass said he arrived at Pineda’s apartment and found her looking like "a zombie" and Emilio Fernandez looking like "the picture of dread." Kass said Pineda then blurted out:

"I killed Ilya" and began babbling that she did not want to go to a hospital and be put in restraints.

Kass said he told Pineda she needed to get an attorney and call the police.

Emilio Fernandez Jr., described as a Miami-Dade police dispatcher, gave a sworn statement and described Pineda’s request for help. He said Pineda told them:

"What I'm going to tell you is going to be shocking, but please don't scream, holler or make a scene" "And I just kind of looked at my brother to see what his facial expression was. We were both the same. We were like, What is the worst that it can be?'" "And then she said, I killed Ilya.'"

He described the next part as:

"I remember having no response ... and there was silence for a few seconds. And she said, `The reason why I called you is because I need your help. I need you to help me get rid of the body.'"

The sworn statement described Pineda’s explanation that when Nudmanov fell unconscious she covered his mouth and nose with her hands.

Kristopher Palomo, Pineda’s oldest son, testified in a sworn statement dated May 5 that he refused to help dispose of the body when asked:

"I got up and I said, `No' and I was walking already out of the door"

Palomo said Pineda told him she felt she either had to turn herself in or kill herself. He urged her not to commit suicide.

In a March sworn statement, Fernandez said that at the time of the grand jury he believed the truth had to be told so justice could be done:

"Currently she's just in [the] mind frame that the truth has to be told on everybody's part so that things can take their course and justice has to be done, whichever way it has to be done" "And she says she's prepared herself mentally and emotionally for the outcome."

Kathy Brouillette was quoted describing a conversation she heard about Pineda’s statements to Nudmanov:

"[Nudmanov] said that [Pineda] said, `I knew this day was going to come because of the age difference. You deserve someone that you can have a family and children with. I knew this wasn't going to last forever,'"

Jessica Palacios told police that Pineda had come to believe there was another woman in Nudmanov’s life. Palacios said:

"Ilya was a very good-looking guy and she was aware of the fact. ... He called the attention of a lot of women" "I guess she was always looking out. And she would tell me stories like, `We went to the grocery store and the lady thought I was his mom.'"

Polena Nudmanov told police Pineda was a “controlling and a horrible person” who kept her away from her son in his final months. Polena also said Pineda made her son give away his cell phone so she could screen calls.

An account said Pineda liked to know where Nudmanov was at all times and had confided she would check his phone messages.

Harold Schueler and Michael Bell testimony at the April 29 hearing included that it was unclear how Nudmanov took the Xanax and that the Xanax levels were consistent with recorded suicide cases.

Timeline

• December 2003 — Ilya Nudmanov’s decaying nude body was found bound in chains and crammed into a Rubbermaid container in the Coral Springs apartment shared with Martha Pineda.
• Dec. 10, 2003 — Police said Nudmanov became unconscious with high levels of Xanax and Zoloft in his system.
• Dec. 11, 2003 — Pineda called her brothers and asked them to help with an emergency after she said she had killed Nudmanov; later that day Polena Nudmanov filed a missing persons report on her son with the Coral Springs Police Department; police received an anonymous phone call reporting a body at the apartment.
• Dec. 13, 2003 — Pineda asked her boss, psychiatrist Ethan Kass, to come to the apartment and told Kass she had killed Nudmanov.
• December 17, 2003 — Police identified the deceased man as Ilya Nudmanov, 27.
• March 10, 2007 — Prosecutors said jealousy drove Pineda to drug and kill Nudmanov; prosecutors said Pineda filled a 90-pill Xanax prescription two days before Nudmanov’s death and that her trial would hinge on testimony from her brothers, her oldest son, and her boss.
• March 14, 2007 — A report described testimony from Pineda’s brothers and eldest son about her confession and the Home Depot purchases.
• March 17, 2007 — A report described that a sworn statement described Pineda’s explanation and that Pineda’s trial continued.
• March 20, 2007 — Pineda was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
• April 29 — Harold Schueler testified and Michael Bell testified at a hearing.

Other details

Pineda was described as an office manager for a psychiatrist in some accounts.

Pineda was described as having filled a 90-pill Xanax prescription two days before Nudmanov’s death.

In courtroom proceedings, Pineda was described as poised and confident as she faced her sons after the verdict.

Pineda’s sons were described as Kristopher Palomo (23) and Emilio Pineda (19), and the account described them anguished across the aisle.

Pineda’s brothers were Emilio Fernandez and Luis Fernandez, and one account also described Emilio Fernandez Jr. as a Miami-Dade police dispatcher.