Man Charged in Death Of Estranged Wife, 18

BIOG: NAME: UPD: 19961206 -TEXT-

CLAREMORE - Melinda Martin may have saved two lives by telling her son-in-law she was going to check the mail, Rogers County authorities say.

But she couldn't save the life of her stepdaughter.

The stepdaughter was shot to death during an argument with her estranged husband, who later surrendered to authorities and was charged with her murder Wednesday.

After grabbing her 3-month-old granddaughter and fleeing her trailer Tuesday afternoon, Martin flagged down a motorist. They notified nearby sheriff's deputies that there was a man in the trailer with a gun.

Authorities found Martin's stepdaughter, Martha Martin Wiley, 18, dead inside. Her body was slumped on the bathroom floor.

"She was hit numerous times," sheriff's investigator Larry Elkin said Wednesday. "The weapon was next to her."

Jeremy Wiley, 21, was charged with first-degree murder and held without bond. He was seen by deputies running from the trailer after the 3 p.m. shooting. A search in the rural area 12 miles north of Claremore was unsuccessful.

Wiley, however, contacted a Claremore bondsman. The bondsman turned Wiley in to the sheriff's office at 11 p.m.

"His family has lived around here a long time and we figured if he talked to them, he'd turn himself in," Elkin said. "He didn't want to be arrested at their house."

Investigators gave the following account of the shooting:

The Wileys had been separated about three weeks and Martha Wiley and the couple's daughter, Kayla, were living with Martha Wiley's parents.

Investigators think Jeremy Wiley was armed when he went to the trailer and asked to see the baby. He left the gun outside, went inside and an argument ensued between the couple.

Melinda Martin was asleep in the trailer. She woke up, saw the argument escalating, and grabbed the baby under the guise of going to check the mail.

"In all probability, she probably saved her own life as well as the baby's," Elkin said.

Jeremy Wiley was ordered held without bond Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He has recent prior convictions in Rogers County for larceny of merchandise from a retailer and burglary of a vending machine, prosecutor Patrick Abitbol said.

Archive ID: 670345