Body of murdered Maryland parole officer was wrapped in plastic bags, police say

Emanuel Edward Sewell, 54, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing of 33-year-old Davis Martinez on May 31. The agent was alone on a routine visit to Sewell’s home, authorities said, and was attacked despite wearing his bulletproof vest.

“It was a brutal murder,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones.

Last week, officers’ union leaders continued to denounce the state parole board’s practices, and state officials announced a restructuring of the agency’s management and suspended home visits by their officers while investigations into the incidents continue.

Sewell was under supervision after his release from prison in 2021. His crime, as detailed in court documents and records, was described by his own attorneys as horrific and brutal. Shortly after midnight on Oct. 18, 1996, according to court records, Sewell climbed through a ground-level window of a Montgomery County apartment, sneaked into the bedroom and woke a young physicist by holding a knife to his throat.

“Don’t move, don’t scream,” Sewell told the man at the time, according to prosecutors. “I’m going to cut you.”

Sewell bound the man’s arms and legs, gagged his mouth and raped him, court records say. He fled with the victim’s bank card, VCR and a 1991 Plymouth. Sewell later told a judge that the effects of his drug addiction played a role in his attack on a stranger.

“He was a victim of the evil that was in me,” Sewell said at the time.

Martinez’s colleagues described him as dedicated, caring and generous. He worked as a probation officer for six years.

“He was just a great person. He’s a hero,” said Rayneika Robinson, president of the AFSCME Maryland parole board.

Court records indicate Sewell is entitled to representation by the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office, but an official there said it was too early to comment.

The hearing, scheduled for Monday afternoon, will focus on whether Sewell should remain in jail without bail while the case against him continues. Given the charges – authorities say he not only brutally attacked Martinez, but then fled to West Virginia – it is unlikely that he will be released given the usual nature of such hearings.

Sewell grew up in the Washington area and was placed in and out of foster homes. His lawyers in the sexual assault case said he moved at least 10 times before he turned 16. They said he was a great football player in high school in Montgomery County but was soon slowed down by cocaine use and mental illness.

Sewell had good sides, too: He graduated, bought a house in Rockville in his early 20s, and worked in accounting. “You have some gifts that a lot of people don’t have,” Montgomery County District Court Judge D. Warren Donohue told Sewell years ago. “You strike me as pretty intelligent.”

In the mid-1990s, Sewell smoked $150 worth of crack a day, his lawyers said in court at that time. He was homeless at times and made repeated suicide attempts – once jumping from Sugarloaf Mountain and another time from the roof of a parking garage, court records show. In 1995, he pleaded guilty to robbery for stealing a woman’s purse and was sentenced to probation after a brief prison sentence, court records show.

At the beginning of 1996, according to the public prosecutor, the young physicist took a job in Montgomery County in part because he believed it would be safer than living in Washington, said then-Assistant District Attorney James Trusty. The apartment he lived in was near a low-traffic street, Trusty said, so he slept with earplugs. One night in October 1996, unusually warm weather prompted him to leave a window open.

At around 1 a.m., authorities say, Sewell broke through a screen door and entered the house. He confronted the victim in his bed, tied her up and sexually assaulted her. “Mr. Sewell threatened him with the knife, showed him the knife and said, ‘I’m going to cut you’ or even, ‘I’m going to kill you,'” Trusty said in court on April 18, 1997, when Sewell pleaded guilty to the assault.

During the crime, Sewell became angry because there was so little money in the apartment. At another point, Trusty said, Sewell told the man not to leave his window open. He took the VCR and bank card and, while the victim was still handcuffed, hid his phone in the refrigerator. before leaving.

The victim was able to free himself after about 10 minutes. eventually found his phone and called the police. Two weeks later, police spotted the physicist’s stolen Plymouth, stopped it, and found Sewell behind the wheel. Prosecutors said it was obvious that he had been living in the car.

Sewell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a first-degree sex offense and additional time for burglary. He was released in 2021 under Maryland’s mandatory release provisions, which take into account points prisoners can earn for good behavior and participation in programs. Sewell was supervised by agents from the Maryland Department of Probation and Parole.

In his case, that meant routine visits to his apartment on Terrace Drive in a Montgomery neighborhood north of East-West Highway and halfway between Connecticut Avenue and 16th Street.

There are differing opinions about what kind of parole officer Sewell was. Carolyn Scruggs, director of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said he “has not shown any danger to date.” However, Patrick Moran, president of the AFSCME Maryland union, said officials had raised concerns.

“It was known that this guy was a problem,” Moran said.

It’s not clear exactly when Martinez arrived at Sewell’s home on May 31. According to their union, he was not armed with a gun, as is standard for parole officers. He was wearing a bulletproof vest.

A neighbor later told investigators that there was a knock on Sewell’s door around 9 a.m. Some time later, the witness noticed a white Ford Taurus, which turned out to be Martinez’s company car, parked outside. Several hours later, around 2 p.m., the witness said, Sewell came out of his apartment carrying two clear bags of clothes, got into his Hyundai Elantra and drove away.

Shortly before 6 p.m., after Martinez failed to respond, Montgomery County police officers were called to the apartment. They eventually forced their way in and “found an unconscious male wrapped in several plastic bags lying under a bed,” investigators wrote in court documents. “Officers noticed that the body appeared to be in the fetal position and discovered a bloody towel near the front door.”

A manhunt for Sewell began. The next day at around 5 p.m., U.S. Marshals in West Virginia received word that Sewell’s Elantra was in the hurricane zone. Together with state and local authorities, they combed the area, spotted the car on Interstate 64 and tried to stop it, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Waggamon. But the driver did not stop.

The marshals restrained the Elantra, disabled it, and approached on foot, Waggamon said. Sewell was not armed, he said, but he had to be forced out of the car.

According to court records, Sewell was held in West Virginia for about a week before returning to Montgomery County on Friday.