Murderer gets life

A former Pitt student convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing, decapitating,… A former Pitt student convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing, decapitating, eviscerating and dismembering his roommate in 2006 was sentenced to life in prison without parole last Wednesday morning.

The judge also added one to two years to James M. Baldwin’s sentence for abuse of a corpse.

Baldwin became a suspect in the murder of his roommate, then-CCAC student Brendon Martin, after Martin’s remains were discovered in a shallow grave in Collier, three miles from the home the two men shared with Baldwin’s girlfriend and her daughter in Carnegie, according to the Post-Gazette.

A Collier maintenance worker noticed suspicious bicycle tracks and footprints that lead to a secluded wooded area. Martin was identified by a tattoo.

Although the stated motive varied throughout the two-year trial from insanity to self-defense to an altercation ignited by Baldwin’s belief that Martin’s marijuana smoking caused Baldwin’s girlfriend to suffer a miscarriage, a jury ruled that Baldwin’s actions occurred while he was sound of mind.

Kevin Abramovitz, Baldwin’s attorney at the time of the sentencing, told the Post-Gazette Baldwin plans to appeal the conviction. The sentence came on the anniversary of Martin’s birth. He would have been 22.