The murder of Jim Craig Martin

No body, confession or physical evidence solved this case. It was solved by people willing to say what they had seen and heard, years later. The Rangers' own account is brief: they and local investigators interviewed witnesses and possible suspects until the case went to a Leon County grand jury, which indicted Willingham on July 22, 2020. The trial testimony, as summarized by the Thirteenth Court of Appeals, shows what those interviews produced. A woman who was in Martin's car on the morning of August 7, 2007 testified that Willingham, angry about a debt of about $150, drove to a remote creek crossing, that she heard a gunshot, and that Willingham then bound Martin and pushed him into the water. The appeals court said a jury should have been asked whether she was an accomplice, but found no harm, because other evidence tied Willingham to the crime. That evidence included a woman Willingham ran over at a Normangee storage facility that morning, who identified him as the driver; Martin's burned car; phone records showing his cell phone last connected to a tower between Bryan and Normangee at 6:51 a.m.; two people who had been at a house in Bryan that night; and a relative's report, told to a jury through police, that Willingham's grandmother disposed of Martin's wallet and credit card. Two jailhouse informants also testified, one hoping for help on his own charge. Willingham's lawyers argued the corroboration was "riddled with contradictions," noting that the woman he ran over said she saw Martin in the car. The court said conflicts are for juries to resolve. Sources disagree on when Martin was reported missing (August 7 or August 10), on whether the arrest came in July or October 2020, and on whether the verdict came on April 4 or a Tuesday.