The triggerman in the 1999 killing of an Ohio medical consultant in Washington County will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Alexander John Martos, 34, formerly of Bentleyville, pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder in the abduction and death of Ira Swearingen, 49, of Stout, Ohio. Washington County Judge Katherine Emery said the charge carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Martos, who will testify against others accused in the case, admitted to shooting and killing Swearingen after kidnapping him from the vicinity of Highway News, an adult bookstore near the Kammerer exit of Interstate 70. “It was my idea to kill Ira,” Martos stated in a written confession read in court by District Attorney John Pettit. Swearingen’s family members wept while sitting in the jury box as Pettit read the confession. A group of students from Cecil Middle School, in court as part of a job-shadowing assignment, also listened. Pettit said Martos and others had robbed “thousands” of people around the bookstore dating back seven years, calling it a “longtime scheme of intimidation.” In many instances, people were too ashamed or intimidated to go to the police. Pettit could not say why Swearingen was at the bookstore on the evening of Dec. 12, 1999, but suggested he was killed because Martos knew Swearingen could not be intimidated and would go to the police. Previous accounts indicated that Swearingen begged for his life as he was being led to a secluded spot near Waynesburg, where he was killed. However, Pettit dispelled those accounts, and quoted Martos as saying that he — not Swearingen, a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War — closed his eyes when he pulled the trigger. “He stood there as a man and looked death in the face,” Pettit said of Swearingen. Swearingen’s family members declined comment at yesterday’s proceedings. Pettit also dispelled theories that Swearingen was looking for a homosexual encounter when he stopped at the bookstore. Pettit said Martos “did not discriminate” in selecting his robbery targets. Pettit had been seeking the death penalty against Martos but disclosed Thursday that a plea bargain was being considered. Jury selection for Martos’ trial was supposed to start Feb. 12, but Pettit said that Martos’ co-defendant Greg Modery could go to trial then. Modery, 31, of Peters Township, also is charged with criminal homicide in Swearingen’s death and could face the death penalty if convicted. In his confession, Martos said Modery was supposed to be the triggerman, but Modery said something on the drive out that enraged Martos to the point of murder. “I was mad and decided to kill Ira myself,” Martos confessed. The murder weapon was a .45-caliber automatic stolen from the Peters Township home of a concrete finisher who had provided jobs to Martos and Modery in the past. Pettit said that no charges likely will be filed in the burglary. Martos will be formally sentenced on April 26 before Emery. Pettit said his plea bargain ends one chapter of the largest criminal investigation in Washington County since the murder of United Mine Workers official Jock Yablonski on New Year’s Eve 1969. The investigation of Swearingen’s death involved state troopers from throughout the area and FBI agents in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas. Pettit said the Swearingen case had two phases. The first was the search, since neither the murder weapon nor Swearingen’s body could be found until almost a year after his killing. The second phase was the prosecution, which is ongoing with other suspects. Pettit said he was ready for a trial, but he usually offers a plea deal in capital cases. Pettit has prosecuted five cases that led to death row, and with the exception of Roland Steele, the “Karate Killer” who beat three elderly women to death in the mid-1980s, he has offered a plea to each of them. So far, he said, there have been no talks of a plea with Modery or any of the other defendants in the Swearingen case. Also charged in the case are Robert Petrick, 35, and John Shaker, 32, who are cooperating with authorities. They are charged with conspiracy to commit murder; kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping; assault and conspiracy to commit assault; and robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. Petrick is free on bail, and Shaker is in custody in an undisclosed location.

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