Chance meeting brings healing for two families
On Jan. 12, 1983, Marengo County Deputy Nate Conner was shot and later died as a result of the shooting. Marengo County resident Ernest Martin was arrested, convicted and sentenced for the murder of Conner. Martin died of heart failure in prison at Kilby Correctional Facility in Mount Meigs in March 2001 at the age of 67. A recent chance meeting at a Demopolis motel prompted Nate Conner Jr., Deputy Conner’s son, to post a video on Facebook that shines a light on that event from 35 years ago.
The morning of Conner’s death, he and another deputy had stopped Martin on a road in Dixon’s Mills in south Marengo County after a report of trouble with someone brandishing a gun. A standoff ensued that resulted in Conner being shot. Conner was transported to Bryan W. Whitfield Hospital in Demopolis where he succumbed to his injuries. Martin was apprehended south of Dixon’s Mills in Thomasville.
On Monday, Oct. 15, Nate Conner Jr., who now resides in Michigan, posted a video on Facebook of a chance meeting with one of Martin’s nieces, Jennifer Martin. According to the video, Conner Jr. was in Demopolis to attend a 30-year high school reunion of his alma mater, Linden High School. When Conner checked into a local hotel, the receptionist said that his name was very familiar to her. Conner stated that the person behind the desk was “the niece of the man they claimed killed my father, Ernest Martin.” Conner was in disbelief that he would happen upon a relative of the man who was convicted of killing his father. Conner states that the reason for posting the video was to let the Martin family know “me and my family don’t have anger or anything against her or her family because, in my heart, I don’t think her uncle killed my father.”
Conner goes on to say that, from the time he was 13 years old, neither he nor his grandmother thought Martin had killed his father. “To this day, I still don’t think so,” Conner said. “I just wanted to let her know, that our family, we don’t have nothing against their family.”
“It means closure to the fact that our Uncle Ernest didn’t do it and that the Conner family knew he didn’t do it.” Dana Edwards, a niece of Ernest Martin, said when asked what the video meant to her family. “We’ve been suffering with this. All our lives, this has been brought up” at times. Edwards stated that her father, Troy Martin Sr., died without ever knowing that the Conner family did not hold Ernest Martin responsible for Deputy Conner’s murder.
When Conner Jr. was reached by phone, he stated that the story needed to be told. “I don’t believe that Ernest Martin was the person who killed my father. I didn’t believe it when I was 13 and I don’t believe it now, and I’m almost 50.” Conner Jr. said that he is planning a return trip to Marengo County and believes that it needs to be told that “my family and I don’t have any hard feelings against Ernest Martin and his family.”
Conner said that the conversation with the Martin family member and seeing her emotions prompted him to record the video. “I wanted to put it out there that we are not upset and have not been.” Conner stated that it took a long time, but they finally had the opportunity to let the Martin family know.
Click HERE to view Conner’s video.