Gallatin sheriff seeking legal counsel

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin, his wife and son are seeking legal counsel for their upcoming court battles.

All three are accused of solicitation for murder-for-hire in Jackson County.

A request by Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin for a public defender to represent him in upcoming court hearings has been denied. He must seek his own legal counsel soon.

Martin's son, Cody, 20, will be represented by a public defender. Kristina Martin has hired Paul Christenson.

A preliminary hearing for all three is now set for Jan. 26, not Jan. 19 as previously reported.

Kristina and Cody Martin were arrested Saturday on the murder-for-hire charges while visiting Sheriff Martin in the Jackson County jail. All three are now held at the Jackson County jail on $1 million bond.

A source close to the investigation has told WSIL-TV the Martins conspired to hire someone to kill two witnesses in the sheriff's upcoming federal drug trial.

Sheriff Martin, whose term ends in November, was arrested May 18 at his office on the federal

drug-related charges. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in June on three charges of distribution of marijuana and two charges of carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime. He pleaded innocent to an additional charge of conspiracy in September. He is held without bond on the drug charges.