Man who killed SLO woman, dumped her body in creek gets maximum prison sentence
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions and violence.
An Arroyo Grande man was sentenced Tuesday to 56 years to life in state prison for the first-degree murder of a San Luis Obispo woman.
A jury convicted Robert Koehler, 40, on July 14 of slashing 26-year-old Kristen Marti’s throat and weighing her body down with rocks in Prefumo Canyon Creek in January 2018.
Before Koehler’s sentencing hearing began in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, defense attorney Trace Milan argued for a new trial for about an hour and a half — claiming his client did not receive a fair trial for various reasons.
However, Superior Court Judge Jesse Marino ultimately disagreed and denied the motion. Marino also denied a motion to ignore Koehler’s previous strike conviction for a 2005 carjacking.
A person receives a strike if they are convicted of a serious or violent felony, which doubles someone’s sentence on a second strike offense and adds a 25 years to life sentence on the third.
Milan told The Tribune he plans to file a notice of appeal for the conviction Wednesday.
A first-degree murder conviction carries a sentence of 25 years to life in state prison, which was doubled for Koehler because of the previous strike. An extra year was added for the use of a deadly weapon, a knife, and five years for serving a prior prison term, totaling in a sentence of 56 years to life.
That was the maximum sentence Koehler could receive.
Defense attorney: Wrongful conviction is ‘sadder’ than SLO woman’s death
Koehler’s attorney said that Marino made the wrong decision in multiple rulings throughout his client’s murder trial.
“I personally believe Kristen Marti should be alive, and nothing she did in her life deserved what happened to her. But there is something sadder than miss Marti being dead, being murdered or being overdosed and her body being disposed of,” Milan said. “And that is that after that happened, someone who did not actually kill her is wrongly convicted because of a trial that included some errors and spends the rest of his life in prison for murder, when all he actually did was solicit her services as a prostitute.”
According to testimony from detectives and those close with her, Marti and her boyfriend were habitual users of heroin and methamphetamine and Marti would sometimes support her and her boyfriend’s drug habits with sex work.
Milan described 12 ways he felt Koehler’s trial was unfair
The defense attorney questioned whether Kohler’s consensual, non-violent affairs were relevant enough in the case for the jury to hear, or whether his client’s rap lyrics, some including references to “killing whores” were admissible — especially now that Assembly Bill 2799, which limits how someone’s creative expressions can be used as evidence, has come into effect.
The law came into effect in September,two months after Koehler was convicted.
According to Milan, the judge erred by not allowing the jury to view specific locations pertinent to the case, wrongly dismissed a juror that was sick for one day, and wrongly instructed the jury on the legal term “flight” in reference to Koehler moving after his home had been searched multiple times by San Luis Obispo police officers.
Marino responded that he stands by all of his decisions, and felt that Milan’s cross-examinations of witnesses were strong enough to allow the jury to properly deliberate reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
Milan also alleged San Luis Obispo Deputy District Attorney Lisa Muscari misled the jurors in several instances.
He said the prosecution had access to Marti’s mother’s DNA to provide positively identify Marti’s body, but instead opted to use pediatric dental records for identification.
The defense attorney said he subpoenaed Marti’s dentist for dental records after the trial was over, and found that the photo of dental records shown to the jury was not included in the records given to him by the dentist.
Marti’s mother’s DNA profile, however, was profiled at the California Department of Justice’s lab and entered into a national database, but no matches were found and it is unclear how the DNA got to the department, Milan said.
The prosecution sent Marti’s mother’s DNA to a crime lab in San Mateo, but decided not to test for comparison after they received confirmation through dental records, Muscari said.
She said prosecutors have their discretion in how they present the case and chose dental records.
Neither the defense nor the prosecution ordered a direct comparison between Marti’s mother’s DNA and that of the deceased.
Marino said the dental records — or lack thereof — did not qualify as new evidence and could not justify as a legal basis for a new trial.
Milan also alleged the prosecution “withheld” Marti’s journal, in which Marti wrote that she loved her boyfriend, Nick Reed, but that they “hurt each other” in a way that was more messed up than “some tweaked out drug dealer ... letting out all his sadistic sexual urges,” until week six of the trial.
One of Milan’s theories is that Reed or a different drug dealer killed Marti — not Koehler
“The defense was provided a list of everything that was in evidence and they have the right to go through every piece of evidence,” Muscari said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it was her journal. But when we did we got a copy and we gave it to the defense.”
Marino said he did not see the journal not being discovered until late in the trial — it was a large case with four years of investigation — and even if it was found earlier, he is not sure if any of its contents would have been admissible in court.
Milan also claimed the prosecution altered photos. Muscari called this accusation “inflammatory” and said photos were taken by two different photographers using two different cameras.
The judge denied a continuance to allow testimony from a witness who claimed he heard Phil Furia, one of the prosecutions leading witnesses, say Reed killed Marti while Furia and Reed were in Los Angeles County Jail.
Milan said he had his investigator track down the witness, who Muscari said had been moved to federal custody.
The investigator tried to serve the subpoena, but the federal agency would not accept it, Milan said.
Marino ultimately stood by all his decisions, and the motion for a new trial in its entirety was denied.
Milan told The Tribune after the sentencing that he plans to file a notice of appeal Wednesday.
Kristen Marti’s family ‘destroyed’ by murder
Several members of Marti’s family attended Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, including her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
All of them asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence and fine onto Koehler.
“No one should have to endure what Kristen had been put through by the hands of Robert Koehler. No family should ever have to learn that not only that their child, sister or cousin died at far too young age, but so brutally and violently at the hands of someone I believe has no regard for human life,” Nicole Dee, one of Marti’s cousins, said at the sentencing. “I try not to let her death overshadow the memory of her strong spirit, but sometimes it feels impossible.”
Marti was extremely close with her family, especially her cousins, Dee said.
“She was my little cousin, the first baby I ever held,” another cousin, who did not wish to be identified, said. “A bright, charismatic, really funny person who was more like a little sister. I love her and miss her more than words.”
Marti’s murder haunts her family, her aunt Trisha Dee said in a statement read by her husband, James Dee.
“It’s difficult to describe just how the murder has affected me and my family,” she said. “How can I express what it’s like when a beloved family member gets torn away from your life, especially in the manner that happened to Kristen?”
Trisha Dee said the gruesome nature of Marti’s death has stayed with her and her daughters, who are constantly reminded of her absence.
“I have a broken heart. I also have a broken heart for my sister who lost her daughter — there is nothing worse in this life than that,” she said. “I know she, along with her husband, Rafael, and daughter Catherine, will never be the same. This act has left my family in despair. You may think he destroyed one life, but he destroyed an entire family.”
At the time of her death, Marti was experiencing homelessness and addiction to heroin and methamphetamine — a mere “blip” in her life, Brian Jones, another cousin, said.
Jones, a prosecutor for the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, called Milan’s earlier arguments “cheap,” “low” and “shameful.”
He accused Milan of victim blaming, and alleged that Koehler targeted and took advantage of his cousin while she was at her most vulnerable.
“She was a girl. She was struggling. She had a family that loved her, but something wasn’t right at that point,” Jones said. “(Koehler) violated a position of trust.”
“This isn’t a case of a dead girl who did something wrong,” he later added.
Jones said society will never be safe if Koehler is released from prison, and asked Marino to impose the maximum penalty to ensure Koehler stays in prison for as long as possible.
“My personal belief is the legislature has not caught up to speed,” Jones said, noting that an extra 25-year sentence is added to murders in which a gun was used. “We punish the for the trigger, but we don’t enhance (the sentence for) severe or violent conduct any greater than the crime of murder.
“Twenty-five years to life is the murder charge. There’s no enhancement that can compensate for the amount of violence of this heinous crime.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2023 at 5:08 PM.
