‘Some very strange nights.’ Feds move in to seize crime-infested south Charlotte home
A little house in south Charlotte features a specialized curb appeal that long ago caught the eye of its prospective new owner.
It’s not the blue shutters or the wooded half-acre lot, the attractive surrounding neighborhood or even its proximity to South Mecklenburg High, a mere 450 feet away.
Instead, the small rancher in the 2700 block of Lytham Drive stands out because it’s at the center of a criminal rap sheet long enough to wallpaper the kitchen. That’s led the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte to file a forfeiture bid this month as part of the government’s legal process to seize it.
Condemnations of criminal hot spots are fairly common. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray says the office has at least 20 pieces of property across western North Carolina — 17 of them residential — that have been linked to federal narcotics cases in the last three years and are now in the forfeiture process.
But not usually on this side of town. Not within an otherwise healthy 30-year-old neighborhood of ranch-style cottages tucked between Park Road and Sharon Road West.
Against that backdrop, the house on Lytham clearly has lost its way, court records show.
Since 2013, it’s been a destination stop by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police a whopping 79 times — for everything from a double homicide in November, to at least four drug overdoses, trafficking of heavy narcotics and even an intentionally set fire in 2019 that took out a backyard shed.
The house, according to prosecutors, “is a classic drug-involved premises” prohibited under federal law as both a threat to neighbors and a taxpayer drain.
In fact, the prosecutors’ filing describes the premises as a veritable revolving door for heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine users, making the house sound less like a single-family dwelling and more like a heavy-narcotics Airbnb.
“There was some very strange nights,” a former neighbor — who asked not to be named out of safety concerns — told the Observer. “Ambulances and firetrucks were out there four or five times over a year and a half. Traffic coming in and out of the house at weird hours ...
“I locked my doors every day.”
According to Mecklenburg County tax records, the 1,300-square-foot cottage was built in 1981 and has an appraised value of $242,100. For years, it was co-owned by Shirley Martin and her son Timothy until the mother died last month.
Timothy Martin, according to the forfeiture filing and Mecklenburg jail records, is a registered sex offender who remains jailed on Oct. 10 charges that include indecent exposure and three counts of possessing drug paraphernalia.
A month earlier, his daughter Krystal Martin — who the court filing describes as both the primary resident of the house and a habitual drug offender — was charged with possession of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine as well as a series of other crimes, public records show.
According to the federal filing, police have been particularly active at the home since 2017 with drugs, weapons and homicide charges being lodged against a variety of people “who appeared to be living in the house but not in any well-defined fashion.”
The crime spree culminated with the Nov. 9, 2019, shooting that killed two people and wounded two others, according to court documents. A 75-year-old suspect was charged. Two others in the home at the time were arrested on outstanding warrants, prosecutors say, and a crack pipe was found under one person’s body.
In the past month alone, prosecutors say, police have made multiple arrests for weapons, theft and narcotics crimes. In one incident, police found crack cocaine hidden in a contact lens container, the filing says.
If the seizure goes through, the government faces a long to-do list for their new fixer-upper: at least 50 code violations.
The filing describes it as a “disheveled mess ... with makeshift bedrooms, clothing and personal items strewn about as well as multiple, emaciated flea-infested cats that were losing their fur wandering throughout the house.”
The former neighbor said he rented his house and left the neighborhood for five years to work overseas. When he returned, he said, the house was clearly exhibiting signs of “substance abuse issues” inside.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
