Destiny Turner seeks long-term justice for her slain daughter

One moment, Destiny Turner was tickling her two-year-old daughter’s feet while they were riding in a car. The next, Turner woke up in the hospital, where she learned her daughter was killed in a wreck.

Twelve years have passed since Ashlee Nicole Martindale, 39, slammed into the car carrying Turner and her daughter, Maraya, down Doolin Avenue in Blackwell. Maraya was killed. Martindale was under the influence of marijuana and other drugs, and she was convicted of second-degree murder in 2012.

Martindale was released from prison in 2021 after serving part of her 20-year sentence. But by September of last year, she was back in the criminal justice system on a DUI charge. Nine months later, Martindale – whose last name is now Ward – is a little more than a week away from her June 23 sentencing in Kay County District Court.

Turner hopes it’s the last time Martindale is outside the walls of a prison. She and others are pushing for Martindale to receive a lengthy prison sentence on the DUI charge, the latest of Martindale’s numerous criminal offenses in Oklahoma and other states.

“I just want people to know that, as awful as this sounds like, it could be their kid,” Turner said. “It could’ve been their kid that she took instead of mine. If she gets out again easy like she did this last time, she is going to be a danger to people again. I feel like, obviously, she did 10 years. She’s not going to learn her lesson in another 10 years.”

A VICTIM’S LIFE SENTENCE

Turner and a friend were driving across Blackwell on June 30, 2011, around 8:50 p.m. to see another friend of theirs. Turner was sitting in the passenger seat of her friend’s Dodge Neon, and her daughter was in the back seat. They weren’t far from their destination.

Meanwhile, Martindale – under the influence of marijuana, Xanax and Hydrocodone that she purchased illegally – was barreling down Doolin Avenue, also known as State Highway 11, in a Dodge pickup, court records show.

In the car, Maraya was fast asleep.

“I played with her foot, I played with her hand, and our turn was like two blocks away,” Turner said. “That’s when everything happened.”

Martindale crashed into the back of the Neon “at an excessively high rate of speed,” according to court documents. When first responders arrived, they found Maraya lifeless in the back seat. She had been impaled by a chair in the car’s trunk.

Martindale was found trying to hide pills in her truck and told officers she thought she was in a Kansas town. Officers found nearly 100 pills in her truck, and an accident investigation found that she never attempted to hit the brakes, court records show.

All involved in the crash were taken to the hospital, according to court documents. Martindale and Turner’s friend were in the same hospital room, where a conversation took place, Turner said.

Turner recounted the incident: “She [Martindale] asked my friend, ‘Are you guys the ones I just hit?’ And she said, ‘I think so.’ And that girl [Martindale] replied, ‘Well, try not to get me in too much trouble.’”

Maraya was pronounced dead at the hospital. Police officers transported Martindale from the hospital to the police department, where they interviewed her.

In Martindale’s arrest affidavit, then-Sgt. John Mitchell of the Blackwell Police Department wrote: “She stated she tried to hide the drugs before the police arrived. She was not able to tell me where she came from or where she was going when the accident occurred. She seemed to show little remorse, even when told that a 2-year-old child had been killed in the accident.”

When Turner woke up in the hospital and nurses informed her that her daughter was dead, she said: “Take whatever you need from me to save her. She’s two years old.”

For Turner, the pain was only beginning. Turner struggled with mental health issues after the wreck, and she admitted herself into a psychiatric facility.

“I couldn’t get out of my head, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it every single day,” Turner said. “It’s kind of like a living nightmare, and it was a nightmare for a long, long time.”

Turner credited her family, friends and faith in God with getting her through the dark times. But Maraya’s death still changed her.

“Before I lost my daughter, I was very outgoing, very sociable. I loved people,” Turner said. “Now, I’m like the complete opposite. I have very few close people in my life, and I like to keep it that way. … I didn’t really know what evil was until after she did that.”

‘WHAT SHE COULD’VE BEEN’

In a slightly blurry photograph that Turner held on a recent Monday, a little girl dons a blue dress as she stands next to some flowers. She holds some in her hands and smiles widely for the camera. It’s Maraya, who would be 14 now.

At the age of 2, Maraya was already a character, Turner said. The little blonde-haired girl with blue eyes loved riding four-wheelers, swimming and spending time outdoors, and she was fascinated by sea animals like penguins and dolphins. Maraya’s best friend was her grandpa, the late Jim Turner, a born-again Christian known in Blackwell for his popular Fourth of July fireworks stand. Maraya even knew how to use Netflix.

“She was beautiful, she was sweet, she was funny,” Turner said. “She loved to dance and sing and just do whatever. She was great, and I miss her all the time. Every day, I miss her.

“Sometimes, I would wake up to her kissing me. Sometimes, she’d wake up slapping me,” Turner said with a chuckle. “She was great.”

Maraya’s smile would light up a room.

“She was phenomenal,” Turner said. “She was the best person I ever got the privilege to meet, let alone give birth to. She was just great. There’s no telling what she could’ve been.”

RELIVING THE WRECK

After years of healing from the trauma of her daughter’s death, Turner’s life was upended again in September. Martindale was back in jail.

On Sept. 16, Martindale wrecked another Dodge truck east of Blackwell on State Highway 11 – the same road where the 2011 wreck occurred. She was under the influence of alcohol, according to court records. She was taken to the Blackwell hospital and then transported to the Kay County Detention Center, where she remains on a $250,000 bond.

The September DUI charge was the latest in a nearly 20-year-long string of offenses for Martindale. She was arrested on a DUI charge in Tennessee in 2002, and she had a felony conviction for bad checks in Tennessee three years later, court records show. In 2010, she had a felony conviction for possession of controlled dangerous substances in Wichita, Kansas, and she was arrested for other drug-related crimes there in 2010 as well, according to court records.

Six months before the fatal wreck in 2011, Martindale was in court on an assault and battery charge, records show.

The Journal-Tribune reached out to Martindale’s public defender, Thomas Griesedieck, who declined to comment. Robert Davis of the district attorney’s office also declined to comment.

When Turner learned that Martindale was back in jail, the pain of the wreck returned.

“She was supposedly sober, then up and does that again,” Turner said. “It’s just betrayal. It feels like a repeated punch to the gut every day.”

When Martindale was released from prison in 2021, she and Turner talked on the phone, Turner said. Turner said she offered to drive Martindale home if she ever found herself under the influence of drugs and alcohol again.

“Before she went back in, I tried to forgive her, and she swore up and down that she would never do it again,” Turner said. “I wanted to believe her. I didn’t want my daughter to die for nothing.”

MOVING FORWARD

As she continues to battle the pain of her daughter’s death, Turner said she has a mission: to keep others safe from potential harm.

“I have to do the time the rest of my life,” Turner said. “Basically, I just want to lock her up as long as I can, if I’m being honest. That’s my goal. I want to get her in there as long as possible just for the sake of everyone else. Our communities need to be protected better than they are, honestly, and I’m going to do what I have to do to get it to be that way.”

Turner has been in contact with the district attorney’s office, and she’s also launched a petition on www.change.org, titled “Justice for Maraya,” to “to help me wake this small town county up from the dangers of Ashlee Nicole Martindale.” So far, the petition has more than 1,000 signatures. She has shared her daughter’s story on social media as well.

Turner plans to be in the courtroom June 23, and her hope is that justice will be served.

“I feel like she’s doing to do it again to somebody else,” Turner said. “That’s what I’m trying to prevent. She can’t hurt my kid anymore. She’s not here. But she can hurt somebody else.”