Cole Martin

Introduction

Cole Martin is a 42-year-old Vallejo, California, man who spent nearly two years as a parolee at large — a fugitive from the supervision he absconded from in late 2023 after serving more than nine years in state prison for felony robbery. When California parole agents finally located him at a Vallejo residence on August 14, 2025, the arrest search turned up two loaded firearms, and the federal gun case that followed ended the day before his jury trial: Martin pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm rather than let a jury decide. He remains in federal custody awaiting a March 2027 sentencing that carries up to fifteen years.

Background Information

Martin’s path to the federal charge ran through California’s state system first. He served more than nine years in state prison for a felony robbery conviction, was released onto parole supervision, and then absconded from that supervision in late 2023 — becoming a parolee at large, the formal status of an offender the state cannot find. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California announced his federal guilty plea, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole M. Vanek and Jason Hitt, with the investigation conducted by the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the FBI.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Pleaded guilty; sentencing pending. Cole Martin, a parolee at large who had been hiding from supervision since 2023, pleaded guilty to gun possession the day before trial after agents found two loaded firearms in the Vallejo residence where he was located.

On August 14, 2025, parole agents located Martin living at a residence in Vallejo and executed a warrant to apprehend him — closing the fugitive chapter that began when he cut off supervision in late 2023. The arrest itself was inside the home, but what agents observed while taking him into custody broadened the case: firearm parts, ammunition, and suspected drug residue inside the house. Those observations became the basis for a request to a court, which granted the authority to search the residence fully rather than stop at the apprehension.

The search found the guns that became the federal charges: a loaded Springfield 9 mm firearm and a loaded KelTec .32-caliber gun, along with other contraband. For any person the discovery would be serious; for Martin it was categorical, because his felony robbery conviction barred him from possessing firearms entirely, and a parolee at large hiding from supervision made the possession unambiguous. The case moved to federal court, where Martin has been detained on the charge since September 2025 — no release between his arrest and his sentencing, a custody span now stretching past a year.

The plea came at the last possible moment. One day before his scheduled jury trial, Martin pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, conceding the charge rather than letting jurors hear the evidence agents and deputies had assembled. The U.S. Attorney’s Office announcement describing him as a “violent Vallejo felon” frames how the government presented the case, and the timing — eve of trial — means every fact the trial would have tested now stands admitted: the residence, the warrant, the two loaded guns, and the felon status that made them contraband in his hands.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The public record is the enforcement announcement, which documents the multi-agency chain — parole agents who found him, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office and FBI who built the gun case, and the prosecutors handling it — and adds nothing from Martin himself. His consequences are already substantial: detention since September 2025, a federal felony conviction admitted by plea, and a sentencing hearing that carries a maximum of fifteen years and a $250,000 fine. The absconding chapter of his file also closed in reverse: the attempt to disappear from supervision in 2023 is precisely what put parole agents at the Vallejo door in August 2025, and the guns found behind it.

Current Status

Martin pleaded guilty on the eve of trial and is now awaiting sentencing, scheduled for March 8, 2027, before U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. He remains detained in the interim, as he has been since September 2025. The charge he admitted — possession of a firearm by a prohibited person — carries a statutory maximum of fifteen years, though the actual sentence will be set by the court under the Sentencing Guidelines and the statutory factors, which will weigh his felony robbery history, his absconding from supervision, and the loaded condition of both firearms recovered. Until March, his file is complete but unjudged: guilty plea entered, sentence pending.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Martin’s choice in late 2023 to walk away from parole supervision set every consequence that followed. The nearly two years of hiding ended in an arrest that converted his status from fugitive to federal defendant, and the loaded Springfield and KelTec found in the Vallejo residence gave the system a charge his robbery record could not survive: a felon with guns, detained since September 2025 and facing up to fifteen more years at the March 2027 hearing. At 42, the arithmetic of his adult life is the state prison term, the fugitive interlude, and now the federal sentence to come — the absconding gained him nothing but the case that ended it.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, “Violent Vallejo Felon Pleads Guilty to Being a Felon in Possession of Firearm on Eve of Trial,” November 4, 2026. source