COLUSA, CA (MPG) – Martin Christian Ehrke sat quietly in a Colusa County courtroom on Oct. 16 as Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Thompson handed down consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences for killing two women at his family’s almond farm in Arbuckle nearly seven years ago.
Ehrke pleaded no contest to two counts of first-degree murder in September for killing 25-year-old Jessica Lynn Mazak and 39-year-old Kimberly Lynn Taylor in a fit of rage.
The impact of their death on their families was evident at last week’s hearing, as the friends and family of both women openly wept as Taylor’s family read their victims’ impact statements.
Mazak’s family, who submitted their statements in writing were distraught during the proceeding but nodded in agreement that the two women and Ehrke had been friends and that neither deserved what Ehrke had done to them.
“Only a parent who has lost a child knows how we feel,” said Taylor’s father, Larry Taylor.
Ehrke, now 55, was convicted of bludgeoning Mazak to death with a rock as she walked her dog on the property. He bludgeoned Taylor to death with a rock as she slept.
First responders found Taylor’s body, along with the murder weapon, in the early morning hours of Jan. 25, 2018, after another friend returned to the property to find a bloody crime scene and the two women missing and called 911.
Mazak’s body was recovered in a nearby pond a few hours later after the Colusa County Sheriff’s Department served a warrant to search the property.
“My life was turned upside down,” Taylor’s mother, Geraldine Jones, said about the moment the family was notified. “We were stunned.”
At the time of their death, both women were described as fun-loving and free-spirited, with big hearts and caring personalities.
Tyler Taylor was just five years old when Erke murdered his mother and said he was stricken with fear that the “bad man” would do the same to him and the rest of his family.
Now 12, Tyler is a trained martial artist and a fierce protector of the grandmother who has since raised him.
Despite the pain and horror of the murders, Tyler said he chases happier memories of the mother who adored him.
“I miss my mom every day and wish she was here,” he said.
Ehrke sat emotionless throughout most of the hearing, looking straight ahead as his victim’s family poured out their grief. The only point where Ehrke appeared to show emotion was when he choked back tears and murmured the words “thank you” when Taylor’s father expressed forgiveness – in keeping with his Christian faith.
Still, the families of the two women had advocated for Ehrke to receive two life sentences without any possibility of parole, and for Ehrke to take full responsibility for the murders through an open admission of his crimes and by pleading guilty.
Although Ehrke eventually pleaded no contest to killing the two women, the case had been held up in court for more than six years as he pursued an insanity defense.
Thompson, however, treated Ehrke’s no-contest plea as guilty and described the murders as brutal, after which Ehrke had attempted to hide the bodies.
Thompson said Ehrke deserved consecutive 25-year-to-like sentences – rather than concurrent – because the murders, although they occurred on the same day, were distinctly separate crimes that occurred at separate periods in time.
Ehrke had served 2,457 days in the Colusa County Jail on the date of his sentencing and was ordered to serve out the remainder of his sentence in state prison.
Under California law, Erke will be about 74 years old when he becomes first eligible for parole.
Taylor’s father said his punishment is never getting to hear his daughter’s voice again or the opportunity to hug her.
“I can forgive, but it’s never going to bring closure,” he said.