A Guilty Plea in a Murder Case
Posted/updated on: February 26, 2017 at 2:44 pmTYLER – A Tyler man plead guilty to his part in a Smith County Murder. Stanton Lane Pearce, 54, plead guilty to charges of tampering or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The charge stems from the murder of Luis Martinez, 62, of Tyler. His body was found in a cemetery in the Antioch Community last September. It took a manhunt of over 24 hours to locate Pearce. Sheriff’s deputies arrested him in the Jackson Heights Community east of Tyler.
Two other persons have also been charged in the case. Laurie Stone Perry, 56, of Chandler and Rebecca Bond, 37, of Tyler, are also charged. The arrest affidavit says one of the suspects, Perry, said she saw Bond, kill Martinez with a .22 rifle. She is said to have shot him multiple times. Perry said she put on latex gloves and broke down the murder weapon while Bond and Pearce moved the body. She said after two hours, Bond returned home and told Perry she had lost communication with Pearce.