Country Singer Daniel Lee Martin Dies By Suicide While Under Investigation for Child Sex Abuse

Daniel Lee Martin, a country singer in the 2000s, died by an apparent suicide on Friday (Feb. 14). The 54-year-old was under investigation for child sex abuse crimes in both Florida and Tennessee.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, a Pasco County, Fla., Sheriff SWAT team discovered Martin's body at a home in New Port Richey, Fla., on Friday afternoon, after entering the house in order to take Martin into custody. Martin, officers say, had threatened to harm both himself and others, and was found with what is believed to be a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Martin was arrested in Pasco County in late January, TMZ reports, and charged with a felony for lewd and lascivious exhibition because a minor female reported that he had performed a lewd act in her presence. The alleged victim, whom officers say witnessed Martin's illegal behavior on numerous occasions when she spent the night at his house, claimed that Martin exposed himself to her while the two were seated on a sofa together, and that he fondled himself and shared pornographic images. Martin was released on $15,000 bail within three hours after that arrest, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

In September of 2018, a grand jury in Williamson County, Tenn., indicted Martin on four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of solicitation of a minor to commit rape of a child, two counts of indecent exposure and one count of solicitation of a minor. These incidents reportedly took place between May of 2014 and January of 2018 and involved three children ranging in age from 9 years old to 12 years old.

Martin had turned himself into police in Spring Hill, Tenn., in October of 2018 in relation to those charges. A trial was set for March, but Pasco County officers were trying to serve a warrant related to those charges, TMZ reports, when they found Martin's body on Friday.

Prior to launching a country music career in 1997, Martin spent time as a baseball and golf player and an advertising executive. He released albums in 2003 (All That I Am) and 2007 (On My Way to You); his last single was a song called "Sometimes Angels Can't Fly."

Martin also appeared on the television show Brotherhood Outdoors, which aired on the Sportsman Channel. He and his now-ex-wife, Julie McQueen, also had a show on Carbon TV, called Til Death Do Us Part. Martin filed for divorce from McQueen in August of 2018.

10 Essential Albums for Your Country Music Education