Paramedic acquitted

A jury of six men and six women took less than 10 minutes Thursday afternoon to lift a "great weight" off the shoulders of a local paramedic who now is looking forward to getting on with an interrupted life.

Brian J. Martin was accused in July 2007 after two emergency aid kits, a bag with respiratory equipment and a $1,450 heart monitor belonging to his former employer, Ambu-Star ambulance service, were found by a county detective in Martin's garage. More than a year after his arrest, Martin was put on trial Thursday on a charge of breach of trust.

The jury found him not guilty.

Both Martin and his wife, Linsey, who also had worked for the ambulance service, testified that Martin was given permission to take a spare set of medical equipment and supplies home with him to use as needed.

And it was everyone's understanding that if the company needed the equipment, they'd know where to find it, Linsey Martin said.

An Ambu-Star official and a former supply manager testified earlier in the day Thursday that it was company policy for such equipment to be locked up in an office or the supply room when it wasn't in an ambulance.

Randy Guyton, vice president and co-owner of Ambu-Star, testified that his company had three sets of the equipment, most of which is used for advanced life support or ALS, and bought five more sets in the spring of 2007. The aid kit with such ALS equipment and medicines cost about $1,500 while the heart monitor costs $1,450. Sometime in April 2007, Guyton said it was determined that one set of the equipment was missing and efforts to find it weren't fruitful.

He said a meeting was held in the early part of May 2007 to talk about the missing equipment, but he claimed no one, including Martin, said they knew where it was located.

Mike Fowlkes, former captain of detectives at the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, testified he found the equipment in Martin's garage in July 2007.

Brian and Linsey Martin maintained Brian had been allowed to take the equipment home and that company officials knew where it was located.

Brian Martin said he was confident all along that his name would be cleared.

"It's still nerve-wracking to be in the courtroom situation regardless if you know you're not guilty," he said. "But we knew this would be the outcome all along."

Martin said he and his wife were both terminated in late June 2007 through a phone call, upsetting their financial life and causing them to worry about their house and car. The charge against him had impacts on his career opportunities, too, he said.

"There were jobs I couldn't get with this hanging over my head," he said. He was thankful he was given an opportunity for employment with another ambulance company.

With the weight lifted off his chest, he plans to move on with his career in emergency services. "Emergency services is what I love," he said.

Linsey Martin said there were no words to describe how she was feeling after the verdict. "It's just unbelievable to get to this point because we have truly waited for so long," she said. "To finally have it over with, it's just a tremendous relief."

Martin was represented by Gaffney attorney Trent Pruett.