GRAND RAPIDS — More than a dozen people watched as a Minnesota state trooper took the stand Monday, July 21, at a pretrial hearing in Itasca County District Court for the criminal vehicular homicide case against Cynthia “Cyndy” Martin.
Martin, 65, allegedly hit and killed 19-year-old Carter Haithcock with her car on Highway 169 near Nashwauk before driving away the night of July 3, 2024. Law enforcement responded to a report of a person lying in the middle of the road, according to the criminal complaint. Responders found the person, later identified as Haithcock, with extensive injuries and pronounced him dead shortly after arriving.
Martin called to report her possible involvement in the incident just before 6 a.m. the next morning, the complaint stated. She told law enforcement she spent the day of the crash at parades in Aurora and Gilbert, had dinner in Mountain Iron and then drove home to rural Grand Rapids.
Martin allegedly told law enforcement she thought she hit an owl or a turkey. Charges were not filed until more than four months later on Nov. 19.
Monday’s contested omnibus hearing centered on two motions filed by Martin’s defense team: one requesting a change of venue for the case, and another questioning law enforcement’s probable cause to conduct a field sobriety test at Martin’s home on July 4.
Minnesota State Trooper Rachel McCabe conducted the test and answered questions on the stand from Assistant Itasca County Attorney Michael Hagley and Derek Hansen, Martin’s defense lawyer.
The incident and prosecution of the case have been under scrutiny because of Martin’s political leadership positions. Martin is the chair of the 8th Congressional District DFL Party and vice-chair of the Itasca County DFL Party, according to the organizations’ websites.
An online petition launched three months ago seeks justice for Haithcock, a 2023 Nashwauk High School graduate and young father who worked at Yanmar. The petition has garnered 798 signatures to date. Some have speculated that Martin earned special treatment because of her politics. Itasca County Sheriff Joe Dasovich responded to the petition online in May, writing that his heart goes out to Haithcock’s family and loved ones.
“Please know that my office is committed to a full, thorough, and fact-based investigation. We owe that to the truth, to justice, and to everyone involved,” Dasovich wrote.
“At the same time, we must allow the legal process to work. The court system exists to find truth through evidence, not emotion. Justice cannot and should not be decided on social media. It must be done the right way — fairly, honestly, and according to the law.”
Martin’s defense team is seeking the venue change in large part because of this scrutiny, citing discussions in a Grand Rapids-based Facebook group and the potential for witnesses to be intimidated by criticism in the media and within the community. The defense stated that Martin would not receive a fair trial in Itasca County.
“Given the extensive pretrial publicity and the substantial involvement of the Itasca community in this case, change of venue is warranted,” the defense’s motion stated.
The state argued that any jury bias could be weeded out in the jury selection process. Hagley reiterated this point at the hearing in response to an amendment to the motion, which cited a resident’s phone call to law enforcement relaying a potential witness’s alleged opinions on the case.
The hearing, however, focused mostly on the defense’s other motion alleging law enforcement lacked a basis for investigating Martin for impaired driving and seeking to suppress all evidence after the field sobriety test.
McCabe’s testimony
State Trooper McCabe, a licensed peace officer since 2020 and a certified drug recognition evaluator, testified about the events the morning after the crash. She said she started her shift at 6 a.m. July 4 and received a phone call from fellow State Trooper Trevor Klatt, who was investigating the hit-and-run incident that occurred the night before. Klatt asked McCabe to meet him at Martin’s rural Grand Rapids home.
McCabe said when she arrived, she noticed a teal-colored Chevrolet Tahoe SUV parked crooked in Martin’s driveway. She looked closer and noticed damage around the headlight and circular spiderweb cracks in the windshield on the passenger side, along with a small piece of thick black fabric stuck in the hood. McCabe said she did not look close enough to observe blood on the car. The presence of blood was later confirmed by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Martin told law enforcement she had driven that vehicle home the night before. She said she did not have any alcohol the day of the crash or the morning after and had not drunk alcohol for about 30 years, according to McCabe. Footage from the restaurant in Mountain Iron showed she did not drink, and there was no damage to her vehicle at that time.
Martin also told law enforcement which medications she was prescribed. This included the narcotic hydrocodone for her knee pain, according to McCabe, which Martin said she took as needed. She explained she used half of a pill before the first parade and the other half after the second parade, or a total of 5 milligrams that day, McCabe said.
McCabe testified that she observed Martin experiencing mood swings that morning. McCabe gave the example of Martin going from upset and crying after learning the circumstances of the crash, to telling a story about a turkey that was an emotional support animal.
McCabe said she took the damage to the car and its position in the driveway into account when determining whether to conduct a driving while intoxicated investigation. She also noted Martin did not stop to call 911.
“Most people do call in when they hit something, unless they don’t want law enforcement involved,” McCabe said.
Martin’s mood swings and her admitted narcotics use also contributed to McCabe's calculation, she said. Months later, the results of Martin's blood test were negative for all the substances for which it was tested, according to court files. DWI is not a charge Martin faces in the case.
As part of the investigation that morning, officers seized Martin’s cellphone as evidence, but McCabe said they allowed her to copy some of the numbers on her phone and call her husband. McCabe said she dialed Martin’s husband’s number and followed Martin inside the home to keep track of the seized phone.
Martin invited the officers into her home and offered them coffee multiple times, which McCabe eventually accepted, the trooper testified. She then sat down and talked with Martin, according to the testimony. Defense attorney Hansen asked McCabe why she offered to talk inside the home.
McCabe said, “Because I’m a human, and I like to take care of people when they need it. And I didn’t want to leave her alone with her thoughts. The other officers were busy.”
In response to several questions from Hansen, McCabe said she did not observe slurred speech, did not feel as though Martin’s story of the previous day’s events was nonsensical and did not otherwise observe any impairment, including bloodshot or watery eyes. He questioned how McCabe concluded that Martin was operating her vehicle in a negligent manner, in the absence of more evidence, and McCabe reiterated this derived from Martin’s admitted narcotics use.
Hansen also asked McCabe whether her conversation with Martin included discussion of the area where the crash occurred. McCabe agreed that she spoke about there being no lights at that location and it being dark at night.
Both Hansen and Hagley reserved their closing arguments for legal briefs. McCabe's body-worn camera footage was added to the discovery in the case. The defense’s brief is due Aug. 18, and the state’s response is due Sept. 8. Itasca County Judge Heidi Chandler then has 30 days to take the probable cause and change of venue motions under advisement and issue rulings.
More on the case
Haithcock was first discovered by a passerby, who called 911. While the reporting party was on the phone with dispatch, another vehicle ran Haithcock over in the road. Based on the debris field and lack of damage to the vehicle, officers believed another vehicle had struck Haithcock previously.
The criminal complaint stated Haithcock spent the evening at the Nashwauk street dance and then decided to walk home after an argument with a former romantic partner. Toxicology showed alcohol and THC in his system.
Martin was on the phone with someone at the time of the crash, according to the complaint. According to their statement, Martin said she hit something, and they told her to call 911. She then called them back and said nothing was wrong with her vehicle and something only hit her windshield, so initially, she didn’t report it.
Crash data from Martin’s vehicle shows that she drove below the speed limit and then hit her brakes just before the crash, according to the complaint. Surveillance footage from the Nashwauk Sinclair gas station showed a vehicle with a single headlight briefly stopping near the crash site just before the body was reported. Footage showed Martin’s vehicle entering Grand Rapids with one working headlight about 20 minutes later.
A crash reconstruction determined Haithcock’s body was thrown 138 feet at a speed of 43 to 52 mph before coming to a final rest.
On July 8, a witness reported to law enforcement that he had seen a person wearing dark clothing in the middle of the left lane on Highway 169 in that location. The witness stated he nearly hit the person, and they would have been difficult to see in the dark.
Martin was charged on Nov. 19. She first appeared in front of Chandler on Dec. 26.
The defense requested that Chandler recuse herself from Martin’s case on Feb. 18. The defense raised concerns over Chandler overseeing a challenge to probable cause in Martin’s case because the judge had determined probable cause in granting a search warrant for Martin’s vehicle while the case was under investigation.
Chandler took the recusal request under advisement on Feb. 26 and denied it on March 5. The Minnesota Court of Appeals previously ruled that judges do not need to recuse themselves in these circumstances.
The defense first moved for a change of venue from the Itasca County District Court to the Sixth Judicial District on April 14. The state issued a memo in opposition on April 24, stating that “the mere existence of pretrial publicity does not necessitate a change in venue.”
Martin moved to dismiss the charge on April 25 based on a lack of evidence.
The defense modified the motion for a change of venue on June 16 to include mentions of residents calling law enforcement.
The felony charge Martin faces for criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the scene carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $20,000 or both. She is currently out on bail, which was set at $100,000 for conditional release. She must make all court appearances, remain law abiding and keep in contact with her attorney.
