From DUI Manslaughter To 22 Years Sober — Martin's Story
Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories
Brad McLeod
4.8 • 596 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On New Year's Eve 2003, Martin Lockett ran a red light drunk and killed two women, and severely injured a third. They where all long-time members of Portland's recovery community, one 16 years sober, one 17. They were returning home from a clean and sober New Year's Eve party. Martin served 17 and a half years in prison. Today he's 22 years sober, a certified substance abuse counselor, and a national speaker who's devoted his life to preventing the tragedy he caused.
In this raw, unforgettable episode, Martin takes us back to his first drink at 14, the identity struggles that drove him to alcohol as a shy Black kid in 1980s Portland, the night his own twin brother begged him to slow down, and the newspaper article four days after the crash that changed everything.
You'll hear about: what it's like to learn who your victims were; the DUI stop three months before the fatal crash; the "alcoholic's brain" that still whispers at 22 years sober; and Martin's warning for anyone who thinks one more drive home is fine.
Martin on Instagram: Here
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I am speeding, trying to get my brother home. |
| 0:02.2 | So I'm driving recklessly, and my brother literally tried to calm me down a couple times. He was like, hey, man, you know, you should probably slow down. You know, the police are out, you know, it'd be in a holiday especially. And I'm like, yeah, that's a good point, you know, so I, I slowed down momentarily and then picked up my speed again. when I got impatient, I just wanted to |
| 0:20.1 | go home and I ended up |
| 0:22.3 | running through a red light |
| 0:23.6 | and I ended up |
| 0:22.3 | running through a red light. And I crashed into a car. In this episode, Martin takes us back to the |
| 0:29.3 | night that changed so many lives forever, a decision to get behind the wheel after drinking. |
| 0:35.7 | What followed was devastating. |
| 0:41.5 | And I just want to give a heads up that this is a heavy chat at times. |
| 0:45.6 | And this is Martin's story on the sober motivation podcast. |
| 0:49.3 | Welcome back to another episode of the sober motivation podcast. |
| 0:51.0 | Today we've got Martin with us. |
| 0:51.7 | Martin, how are you? |
| 0:52.7 | Excellent. |
| 0:53.4 | How are you doing? |
| 1:28.6 | Yeah, I'm good, man. I'm glad we could connect here. Hear your story on the podcast. Yeah, no, it's an honor to be here. So we're really looking forward to today. Yeah. So what was it like for you growing up? I would say it was fairly average. I mean, I guess I saw, you know, relative, but I grew up in Portland, Oregon in the 1980s. And, you know, I know people hear about Portland today. And, you know, they had the show Portlandia, was kind of put Portland on the map. And the whole keep Portland weird mantra. You know, we had naked bike rides, this kind of a thing. |
| 1:32.0 | But I can just say that in the 80s, it was much different. |
| 1:36.9 | The area that we lived in was, I would say, below the poverty line. |
| 1:40.2 | If you had to, you know, kind of qualify it a certain way. |
| 1:46.6 | But, you know, so it was, it was tough in the sense that, you know, there were gangs coming up from like California fighting for territory. It was the height of the crack epidemic during |
| 1:51.3 | those years. So all of that was going on outside, but inside my home, it was very loving and |
| 1:58.2 | nurturing. I had both parents. My dad worked, you know, blue-collar jobs to support |
... |
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