Alyssiah Wiley death: How Connecticut mom survived violent murders of her two daughters by their boyfriends
WEST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT: In April 2013, the world of Corrinna Martin, an African-American mother-of-four was rocked when she got a phone call from her daughter Alyssiah Wiley's university saying that the sophomore had been missing for the past few days. What followed was a discovery of her daughter's dismembered body parts, the killer getting convicted after three court trials and Martin's eldest daughter, Chaquineaquea getting killed in a similar domestic-type homicide.
The plight of the family once made up of five beautiful Black women was highlighted in 'There's No Winning In Murder', an episode of Investigation Discovery's crime documentary series, 'Impact Of Murder'. The episode begins with Corrinna commenting on Alyssiah's murder. “Our plight was not gonna be another girl just thrown against the wind. She didn’t give up her life. She was taken from it," she said which set the tone for the nearly one-hour long documentary.
Alyssiah's murder
Alyssiah started dating Jermaine Richards, who was over 10 years older than her, in the final year of her school. They continued dating when she joined Easter Connecticut State University. After she texted her friend Sade Burke on the night of April 20, 2013, no one heard from Alyssiah. Sgt Forest Ruddy of the Connecticut state police, Eastern district major crime squad, says that Alyssiah was last seen walking through the lobby at the campus on April 20 and then getting into the car with her boyfriend in the CCTV footage. After interviewing several people, the detectives determined that the boyfriend's story of having an argument and leaving her miles away from the campus did not add up.
On May 17, after four weeks of search, Alyssiah's remains were discovered near a place which was a five-minute drive from her boyfriend’s Bridgeport home. “The monster cut her up and threw her away like trash,” Corrinna says in the documentary and bursts into tears.
Three Trials
Richards was arrested for felony murder and first-degree kidnapping. In Feb 2015, a year and 10 months after Alyssiah’s disappearance, Richards goes to trial which lasts 29 days. Joe Corradino, the lead prosecutor in the case of State vs Jermaine Richards says there was substantial circumstantial evidence that supported a guilty verdict but there was no direct evidence — no confession or the defendant's DNA at the crime scene. There was also no video of him committing the offense. On March 6, 2015, the judge returned with an update that jurors were deadlocked in the murder case after four and a half days of deliberations.
Although Corrinna says she had given up hope, the prosecutors wanted a second trial. After a retrial began on March 8, 2016, 23 days later another mistrial is declared. Even as the Martin family was about to give up hope, the prosecutors pressed for a third trial, which was almost unheard of in murder cases.
Chaquineaquea's killing
Before the family was scheduled to appear in court for the third time, Corrinna’s eldest daughter met a man online – Anthony Rutherford. The family did not like him but wanted to let her lead her life. Three weeks before the third trial for Alyssiah — August 18, 2017 — Corrinna gets a phone call and she gets informed by a detective that Chaquineaquea was shot in the head in her car.
Her oldest daughter was killed too. Rutherford had been named the lead suspect in the murder and had been arrested. The third trial was supposed to begin before Rutherford had his day in court. In the third trial, Richards was found guilty. On March 2, 2018, he was sentenced to 60 years without parole. He is appealing the conviction. Six months later, the Martin family was back in court where Rutherford pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 80 years without the possibility of parole.
Corrinna's push for a national violent offenders registry
After Chaquineaquea's death, the detectives found out that Rutherford had two prior domestic violence arrests in New Jersey and accusations of assault in Pennsylvania. Richards too showed disturbing behavior when he was with Alyssiah.
“He had a pattern of jealousy that he had to check on her all the time. Jealousy is a very strong motive for a domestic type homicide,” Corradino said. Burke added: “He was very domineering and she felt like she couldn’t be herself or do the things that she wanted to do.” Ruddy said: “He made comments in some of his text messages to some of his friends that ‘I can't believe she’s breaking up with me over social media or text messages’ and that just infuriated him and again, if he couldn’t have her no one else could.” Richards also had a number of aliases in multiple dating sites.
Following the tragedies, Corrinna tried to create a National violent offenders registry. She is currently the president of a non-profit organization called Mothers of Victim’s equality (MOVE). It was co-founded by Chaquineaquea to help prevent domestic abuse and support victims. Corinna hopes to continue her eldest daughter's life's work so that other families can be saved from similar plights that she had to endure, she said.