Kit Martin: Army Major Convicted of Triple Murder

Christian Richard “Kit” Martin is a former U.S. Army major and commercial airline pilot who was convicted in June 2021 of the Kit Martin triple murder in Pembroke, Kentucky, the November 2015 killings of neighbors Calvin “Cal” Phillips, his wife Pamela “Pam” Phillips, and Edward “Ed” Dansereau. A Hardin County jury found him guilty on three counts of murder along with burglary, arson, and evidence tampering charges, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors said he killed Cal Phillips to keep him from testifying at Martin’s Army court-martial two weeks later.¹

What Happened in Pembroke on November 18, 2015

Cal Phillips was a retired Army soldier restoring a Victorian home in Pembroke, a rural town of about 700 people in Christian County. His wife Pam was a vice president at a local bank. Their neighbor Ed Dansereau was a professional pianist and amateur chef.²

On the afternoon of November 18, 2015, Pam Phillips left work early to check on her husband after learning a delivery could not be made to their home. A witness, Frances Marlene LaRock, heard a scream and then silence. Around 2:15 the next morning, a neighbor heard explosions or gunshots. Police responding to the scene found Cal Phillips at the bottof the cellar stairs. He had been beaten and shot five times with .45-caliber bullets from a Glock pistol.³

Hours later, officers found a vehicle registered to the Phillips family burning in a nearby cornfield. Inside were the remains of Pam Phillips and Ed Dansereau, both shot with a .22-caliber firearm. Investigators believe Dansereau had rushed over after hearing a commotion at the Phillips house and was killed as a result. Authorities described Pam and Dansereau as “collateral damage” in what they characterized as a targeted attack on Cal.²

The Court-Martial Motive

Martin served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve from 1986 to 2016, reaching the rank of major. He was also an Army Ranger and a combat helicopter pilot.⁴ The chain of events that led to the killings began with a contentious breakup between Martin and his then-wife, Joan Harmon-Guerra.

When Harmon left Martin, she temporarily moved into a property owned by the Phillips family. While helping her move, Cal Phillips found a box containing computer disks labeled “secret” and a U.S. Army laptop, and he turned the items over to the FBI. Phillips also reported to Army investigators that he had seen photographs of Harmon’s son with bruises and welts on his back, which he attributed to abuse by Martin.²

Those disclosures triggered a court-martial against Martin on charges including sexual assault, child abuse, conduct unbecoming an officer, mishandling classified information, and communicating a threat.⁵ Cal Phillips was on the witness list and was scheduled to testify against Martin about two weeks after the murders occurred.⁶

Prosecutors argued Martin killed Cal Phillips to preserve his military career by silencing the witness against him. Before their deaths, both Cal and Pam Phillips had told others they feared Martin would harm them because of the court-martial and what they knew.³

The court-martial went ahead at Fort Campbell in May 2016 without its planned witness. Martin was acquitted of the most serious charges, including sexual assault and child abuse, but was convicted of two counts of mishandling classified information and two lesser assault charges. He received a reprimand, 90 days of confinement, and dismissal from the Army, the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge.⁵

The Evidence That Reopened the Case

The murder investigation moved slowly at first. Police recovered a military dog tag belonging to Martin from a shelf in the Phillips’ home on November 27, 2015.⁷ In April 2016, a shell casing was discovered under wood on the breezeway of the Phillips’ residence. Testing in 2018 matched it to a .45-caliber Glock pistol found in Martin’s home safe.³

The case had gone cold by 2017. It was revived after the Phillips family’s son, Matt Phillips, urged the Kentucky Attorney General’s office to take over.⁸ Prosecutors used cellphone tower data to place Martin near the cornfield where the burned vehicle was found.⁷

By then Martin had moved on. After leaving the Army, he was hired in January 2018 by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary of American Airlines. American Airlines later said his military assault conviction had appeared on his criminal background check as a “simple assault,” which was not a disqualifying offense for pilot employment.⁴

On May 10, 2019, a Christian County grand jury indicted Martin on ten counts, including three counts of murder, first-degree burglary, arson, attempted arson, and three counts of tampering with physical evidence. The next morning, U.S. Marshals removed Martin from a commercial airplane full of passengers at Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, about an hour before the flight to Charlotte was scheduled to depart.⁹

The Trial and the Defense That Failed

Martin was tried in June 2021 in Christian Circuit Court on a venue transferred to Hardin County, with Circuit Judge John Atkins presiding. Attorney General Special Prosecutors Barbara Whaley and Alex Garcia handled the case for the state.¹⁰

The prosecution’s physical case rested on the shell casing matched to Martin’s Glock, his dog tag found inside the victims’ home, and cellphone tower records. Other forensic results were mixed. Bullet fragments recovered from Pam Phillips and Dansereau could not be conclusively linked to Martin’s .22-caliber weapons, and .45-caliber fragments from Cal Phillips’ body were also inconclusive. Blood in the Phillips’ yard was confirmed as Dansereau’s, and Pam Phillips’ blood was found on the back door. Hairs from Dansereau’s vehicle were “consistent” with Martin’s, but the one hair suitable for DNA testing did not match him.³

Martin maintained his innocence and mounted what courts called an “alternative perpetrator” defense. He accused his ex-wife Joan Harmon of orchestrating the murders and planting the shell casing to frame him. Witnesses testified that Harmon had been seen with a Glock-like gun tucked in her waistband and had expressed excitement about the murders.⁷

The defense hit a wall. Both Harmon and her son Justin Elijah Harmon were subpoenaed but invoked the Fifth Amendment through separate lawyers. Judge Atkins ruled that given their status as former suspects and Martin’s accusations in opening statements, any responsive answer could incriminate them. The court quashed the subpoenas, keeping them off the stand.³

Martin took the stand and denied that the dog tag was his. He testified that his own tags were always worn on metal breakaway chains, while the recovered tag was on a white string, and that his tags always came in pairs with rubber “boots” to prevent noise and glare. He argued anyone could buy imitation dog tags online.¹¹

On June 16, 2021, the jury convicted Martin on all counts: three counts of murder, two counts of burglary, one count of arson, one count of attempted arson, and three counts of tampering with physical evidence. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.¹

The Kentucky Supreme Court Appeal

In an opinion rendered October 26, 2023, the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed Martin’s convictions for murder, burglary, and tampering with physical evidence. It reversed the arson and attempted arson convictions, finding the evidence too thin to survive a directed verdict.¹²

The Court rejected Martin’s main appellate arguments. It held that Harmon and her son had properly invoked the Fifth Amendment, and that under Kentucky law prosecutors cannot unilaterally grant immunity to compel testimony, so the Commonwealth had no duty to immunize them. The Court also upheld the admission of hearsay statements from Cal and Pam Phillips about their fear of Martin, applying the “forfeiture by wrongdoing” exception to Cal’s statements and the “state of mind” exception to Pam’s.³

The Court acknowledged the trial judge had wrongly excluded some defense evidence on Fifth Amendment grounds, including testimony about whether Harmon’s relationship with Cal Phillips was “unhealthy,” but it deemed the error harmless because Martin had been permitted to “thoroughly develop” his alternative perpetrator defense through other means. Judge Nickell dissented.¹²

Weapons Hidden in a Staircase

The case gained a striking postscript in 2024. Investigators monitoring Martin’s recorded phone calls from prison heard him urgently direct his sister, Juliet Andes, to recover a box he had hidden inside the stairs of his former home in Raleigh, North Carolina, before the house was sold.¹³

When investigators contacted Juliet Andes and her husband Keith, both initially denied knowledge of the box. Keith later admitted on a recorded call that he had removed it, seen the weapons inside, and replaced it. The box then passed to Emma Spencer, the daughter of Martin’s ex-fiancée. Spencer was initially uncooperative, telling investigators, “If any information I give you is to discredit me or Kit, you can kindly piss off.” She later disclosed that a neighbor had the AR-15 while she kept the silencer. After investigators warned about federal regulations on silencers, the weapons were surrendered.¹⁴

The recovered items were a .22-caliber AR-15 and a silencer. Lead Detective Lt. Scott Smith of the Christian County Sheriff’s Department said he believes both weapons were used in the murders. The silencer and the Glock recovered earlier from Martin’s safe were painted the same gray-green color, and Smith said the silencer likely explains why no one heard the gunshots that killed Cal Phillips. Several components had been removed from the AR-15, which Smith said Martin had done “to cover his tracks.” Detectives believed those missing parts, if found, could conclusively match the bullet fragments from Pam Phillips and Dansereau. As of April 2024, the department was awaiting forensic results, including DNA testing on the silencer.¹³

Where Martin Is Now

Martin is serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty. His murder, burglary, and tampering convictions stand after the 2023 ruling. The Commonwealth retained the option to retry him on the reversed arson charges, and public reporting has not indicated whether it chose to do so.¹

1
WKDZ Radio. Kentucky Supreme Court Upholds Martin’s Conviction in Pembroke Triple Murder Case
2
Oxygen. Christian Martin Murder of Cal and Pamela Phillips in Pembroke, Kentucky
3
Kentucky Attorney General’s Office. Martin v. Commonwealth, Supreme Court of Kentucky Opinion
4
CBS News. Christian Martin, Pilot, Alleged Kentucky Triple Homicide
5
The Leaf-Chronicle. Verdict Expected in Army Major’s Court-Martial
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Fox 17. A Love Triangle and Financial Ruin: Who Had the Motive to Murder in Pembroke
7
Court TV. Former Pilot Accused in Kentucky Triple Murder Case
8
Good Morning America. Fiancée of Commercial Pilot Charged in Kentucky Triple Homicide
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ABC News. Airplane Pilot Arrested in Kentucky Triple Murder Case
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Louisville Courier-Journal. Airline Pilot in Kentucky Triple Murder Gets Life Sentence
11
Kentucky New Era. Kit Martin Trial Coverage
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LITE 98.7 WHOP. KY Supreme Court Affirms Christian Martin Murder Convictions in Pembroke Triple Murder
13
WSMV. Detectives Believe American Airlines Pilot Stashed Murder Weapons Within Stairs to Avoid Discovery
14
WSMV. Deputies: Kit Martin’s Family, Friends Lied First When Asked About Missing Weapons