Did violent man deserve to die like a dog?

Perhaps everyone got what they deserved, but it is a troubling case and leaves in its wake some lingering questions.

By all reports, Marty Nolan Wilson was a mean, violent drunk. At the time of his death on that cold February night in 2010, Wilson had charges pending against him for domestic violence in Madison County. His victim said he had abused her for a long time, especially when intoxicated. That abuse included having put a gun into her mouth, hitting her with a hammer and putting a plastic bag over her head.

In the weeks leading up to his death, Wilson had been arrested twice in Barrow County on charges that included public intoxication. Both times, Wilson had to be Tasered by county detention personnel to get him under control.

On the night he died, Wilson was at a home on Clacktown Road in Winder, along with six or seven other people. He had purchased a 12-pack and some tequila and brought it with him, although he had been drinking even before that.

As the night went on, Wilson became increasingly intoxicated and began to verbally abuse several of the women in the house.

Everyone tried to calm him down, according to those present, but Wilson was very “aggravating,” they said.

One of those who tried to get Wilson to calm down and leave the house was Justin Baber, the 19-year-old nephew of the home-owner. Baber was at the house because he lived there with his uncle. He was with his girlfriend and their baby and several other friends, mostly in the back part of the residence.

At one point during the evening, Wilson reportedly came at Baber with a knife from behind, but backed off when one of the women screamed and Baber turned around.

Baber subsequently armed himself with two knives. Eventually, Baber got Wilson outside the house, apparently in hopes of locking him out of the home. But the two struggled on the front porch, fell off the steps to the yard where Baber stabbed Wilson twice in the left arm area. The wounds didn’t kill him immediately.

Baber later claimed self-defense in the stabbing, saying Wilson had attacked him first. His girlfriend was the only other witness and backed Baber up.

After the stabbing, Baber locked Wilson outside the house. He then took his baby, his girlfriend and two other friends, slipped out the back door and left the residence in a car. Wilson was left shouting and banging on the front door, but the others inside the house were sleeping and didn’t hear the noise at first.

But before he left the house, Baber washed and cleaned the two knives with Clorox, the same knives he had stabbed Wilson with. On his way to his mother’s home that night, Baber stopped at a friend’s house where he told the man he thought he had killed Wilson and wanted to dispose of the knives. The friend didn’t want to get involved and Baber threw them near the house and left.

Meanwhile back at the stabbing scene, the homeowner was eventually awakened by Wilson’s banging on the door and let him in. He saw a large amount of blood and asked Wilson what had happened, but Wilson apparently wouldn’t tell him. Wilson sat down and the homeowner went back to sleep, thinking it was a bloody nose.

He found Wilson, a long-time friend, dead on the floor the next morning.

Baber was later charged in the stabbing with murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, etc. All charges were dismissed on Sept. 6, 2011 because prosecutors said they couldn’t make a case against Baber.

So did Wilson, the mean drunk, just get what he deserved?

Maybe. But after reading the case file and DA’s dismissal, there are some troubling questions:

• Rather than tolerate a mean drunk, why didn’t someone in the house call law enforcement that night? Why did Baber feel the need to take matters into his own hands rather than calling 911? Why didn’t one of the women in the house call for help?

• If the action was self-defense, why did Baber run away? Why did he scrub the knives with Clorox, then try to hide them? Why didn’t he just call for law enforcement help after the stabbing while Wilson was still alive? And why did he tell his friend that he thought he had killed someone when as far as he knew, Wilson was still alive at that point?

• Why did the homeowner do nothing when he finally got up and let a blood-soaked Wilson into his house? Why didn’t he call 911 and tell them there was a man covered in blood in his living room rather than just going back to sleep, leaving Wilson to bleed to death on his floor?

Maybe this case, as the DA said in the dismissal, wasn’t a strong murder case. I can see the gray areas they mention in their order — a lack of witnesses, Wilson’s record of violence while intoxicated, Baber’s clean record, etc.

But there were attempts by Baber to destroy evidence and a lot of neglect on his part and on the part of other people who should have called authorities long before Wilson slowly bled to death. Isn’t there some kind of case for tampering and negligence in all of this?

Perhaps Wilson got what he had coming to him; he’s obviously a very unsympathetic victim. Anyone, including a jury, would have a difficult time feeling sorry for him given his history of drunken violence.

And yet, do we just shrug our shoulders and walk away, as if he were just another dying dog lying by the roadside that we pass by without a second thought?

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.