Western Michigan man gets life for striking woman with pickup, leaving body in woods

PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man convicted of murder after striking a 64-year-old woman with his pickup truck and then taking her body to a wooded area was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Colby Martin, 31, of White Pigeon hit Melody Rohrer in 2021 while she was out for a walk in Van Buren County, authorities said. He then put the body in his vehicle and engaged in sexual acts with it, they said.

Martin, who didn’t know Rohrer, acknowledged in a police interview that he struck Rohrer and left the body in St. Joseph County, but he denied any sexual acts. His attorney told jurors the collision was an accident.

“Colby Martin, you are pure evil,” Rick Rohrer, Melody Rohrer’s husband, said in court. “You truly are the devil masquerading in human form.”

Martin was convicted in June of first-degree murder, concealing the death of an individual and failure to stop at the scene of a crash when at fault causing death.

“It’s never given me joy to impose the sentence of life in prison without even the possibility of parole, but in this case, it does give me an extraordinary sense of relief,” Van Buren County Circuit Judge Judge Kathleen Brickley told Martin. “Relief in knowing that you will never have the chance to crash both literally and figuratively into a family’s life again, drowning them in heartache and agony.”

Martin chose not to address the court at his sentencing, news outlets reported.