A bond hearing has been set for the owner of Fairview Memorial Cemetery after prosecutors said he posted bail with money designated for the cemetery and asked that he be arrested.
Theodore Lloyd Martin, 53, of Ravenna, Ohio, is scheduled to appear in Delaware County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday at 9 a.m. for a bond hearing after his bond was revoked and he was arrested.
At his arraignment on March 15, Martin pleaded not guilty to one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony and 51 counts of theft, 27 fourth-degree felonies, 21 fifth-degree felonies and three first-degree misdemeanors and had his bond set at $30,000.
He was released from the Delaware County Jail on March 16 after posting bail through a bail bondsman.
At the arraignment, Assistant Delaware County Prosecutor Mark Sleeper said Martin and his wife Arminda are the owners of Fairview Memorial Park in Lewis Center and accepted money for services and grave markers that were never delivered. Sleeper said in some cases the orders for the markers were placed with the manufacturer but were never paid for and in other cases the orders were never placed.
However, Sleeper filed a motion on March 27 asking Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Everett Krueger to revoke Theodore’s bond and issue a warrant for Martin’s arrest.
In the Motion to Revoke Bond, Sleeper stated that Theodore instructed his mother-in-law and officer manager to use money from the cemetery’s bank account and write a $3,000 check to bail him out of jail.
Sleeper wrote that the check was ‘signed’ by Arminda Martin, which would be impossible because Arminda Martin is in prison serving a sentence for tax evasion. Sleeper also reported that the $3,000 used to bail Theodore out came from a February 2017 sale of a vault and two headstones to a Delaware County woman for $5,900.
On March 30, Krueger granted the motion, revoking Theodore’s bond and issuing a warrant for his arrest. Theodore was taken into custody on April 8 and was in the Delaware County Jail on Tuesday.
He is currently scheduled to stand trial on May 30.
Arminda was also indicted with Theodore on Feb. 24 and was charged with one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony; and 37 counts of theft, 17 fourth-degree felonies, 17 fifth-degree felonies, and three first-degree misdemeanors.
Krueger said that Theodore faces between two to eight years in prison for the second-degree felony; between six to 18 months in prison for the fourth-degree felonies and between six and 12 months in prison for the fifth-degree felonies.
An arraignment for Arminda has not yet been set in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
