A woman from Ohio, who was involved in a polyamorous relationship with six partners, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for orchestrating an attack on one of her boyfriends.
Martina Esqueda, 29, residing in Toledo, was handed the sentence in a Lucas County court for leading the assault on Austyn McClellan.
Esqueda lived with her husband, Michael Esqueda, along with her five boyfriends—McClellan, Aaron and Austin Bradshaw, Chance Johnston, and David Cessna—in a shared home in Toledo.
The court heard that Esqueda ordered her partners to take McClellan to a Red Roof Inn in Maumee, where they brutally attacked him with fists and baseball bats over a span of 10 days. During this ordeal, he endured multiple fractures and was deprived of sleep and food, according to the Toledo Blade.
Authorities reported that Esqueda was the key planner of the assault, directing her partners to carry out the violent acts against McClellan.
Her conviction includes an eight-year sentence for first-degree kidnapping, along with two consecutive seven-year sentences for second-degree assault charges.
Her husband received 16 years for the same charges. The other men were varying sentences, while Cssna’s trial will start next week.
McCellan told police that the horrific ordeal began after a dog fight broke out at Esqueda’s home.
Martina Esqueda, 29, of Toledo, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for ordering her boyfriends to beat her other boyfriend Austyn McCellan in 2025
She was found to be the ringleader of the assault, which left McCellan with broken bones
When he and the 29-year-old attempted to break up the brawl, she suffered a broken arm in the chaos.
Instead of explaining what truly happened, Esqueda allegedly falsely blamed McCellan of breaking her arm, according to police reports.
This lie allegedly sparked her lovers’ brutal revenge.
McCellan was rescued only when his captors allowed him a brief trip to a nearby Speedway convenience store on March 21, 2025, as reported by FOX 8.
During the moment of freedom, he managed to make contact with someone, who then alerted his mother.
His mother immediately rushed to the Red Roof Inn to rescue her son, and police were called to the scene.
Officers obtained warrants, placed the hotel under surveillance, and later arrested all six suspects before they could flee the area.
McCellan was rushed to the hospital with injuries covering his entire body.
Michael Esqueda, Chance Johnston, David Cessna, Austin Bradshaw, Martina Esqueda and Aaron Bradshaw all faced charges for the assault
The victim said in a letter read in court on Thursday that he still suffered from nightmares about the ordeal.
‘None of this would have happened had you not been the ringleader or mastermind behind every bad thing that happened to me,’ he wrote, according to The Blade.
He said he was forced to stay in the home and ‘never did anything to any of them or the animals living in the house.’
Esqueda’s attorney argued the obese woman had been sexually abused as a child and spent her late teens in foster care, giving her an inability to love.
‘She does not understand love, because she has never felt it,’ Attorney Morgan Isenberg said.
‘The people who were supposed to love her, supposed to support her, supposed to help her grow, they broke her.’
In a statement to the court, Esqueda admitted to McCellan that she ‘should have been a friend when you needed me.’
‘Instead of knocking you down when you were already down,’ she said, according to The Blade.
During the investigation, police discovered that Esqueda maintained romantic relationships with all five of her male accomplices and had multiple children with them.
