Gilroy
– A judge Thursday ordered 23-year-old Leon Steven Martinez to
stand trial for a shooting at a Forest Street apartment complex
last August.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – A judge Thursday ordered 23-year-old Leon Steven Martinez to stand trial for a shooting at a Forest Street apartment complex last August.
Martinez will face charges of premeditated attempted murder, with enhancements for the personal use of a firearm and committing a crime to benefit a gang, Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Shapero said at the conclusion of Martinez’s preliminary hearing.
A trial date is not yet set, but should take place in about seven weeks, said Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott, who is prosecuting the case.
Martinez could face life in prison if convicted of pulling up to Avelino Hernandez Perez, who was standing with two roommates in the carport of their apartment building last Aug. 1, and shooting him twice. Martinez, a known Norteño gang member, shot at Perez because he did not speak English, police testified Thursday.
“A shooting this egregious, we’re not going to offer him any deals,” Scott said.
At trial, Scott will try to show that Martinez, driving his girlfriend’s sport utility vehicle, pulled into the apartment complex about 1pm that day and asked Perez and his friends where they were from. When Perez asked Martinez if he spoke Spanish, the defendant produced a .44-caliber revolver and fired four rounds, two of which struck Perez, one in the left leg and one in the left hip. Police said they found Martinez fleeing the scene in the SUV and he led them on a brief pursuit to his girlfriend’s mother’s house nearby. Once there, he reportedly got out of the SUV and fled on foot, jumping over a fence and running into a house on nearby IOOF Avenue, where he was eventually discovered and arrested after police searched 13 homes. He has been in custody since his arrest.
A woman who lived in the 8323 Forest St. complex, just south of Leavesley Road, where the shooting occurred, testified that she noticed an SUV matching the one Martinez was driving that day as it entered the parking lot. Adelaida Gonzalez Cardenas said she heard one gunshot, followed by three others after a brief pause. When she and her husband returned to the window, she said, the SUV was speeding away.
Perez and his two friends did not understand the driver of the SUV when he asked where they were from, said Gilroy police Officer Pedro Espinoza, who interviewed the victim.
Prosecutors say Martinez shot at the group of men only because they were Mexican nationals, and that the victims had no gang affiliations. One was wearing a striped shirt with blue in it, and another was wearing a solid blue shirt. Sureño gang members affiliate with the color blue.
Asking where someone is from is a common challenge used by gang members, Detective Jeff Roccaforte said in an interview.
Martinez, who is from Salinas but was living with his girlfriend in Gilroy at the time of the shooting, is connected to at least one Norteño-associated Salinas gang, he said.
On the day of the shooting, Martinez, who has a “14” tattooed on his stomach, was reportedly wearing red pants and a red beanie. The defendant’s girlfriend, who is now his wife, said he is not a gang member.
“A lot of people get those (tattoos) without necessarily belonging to the gang,” testified Margarita Rangel Martinez. “It means he’s a Norteño, but that doesn’t actually mean he’s a gang member.”
Before Margarita Martinez took the stand, Defense Attorney Eugene Martinez attempted to exclude her testimony, claiming spousal privilege and prejudice because she was in the courtroom for most of the testimony of Cardenas and Espinoza. Shapero allowed her to testify because the couple were married after Martinez was arrested. While she should have remained outside the courtroom during testimony, the error occurred because she entered after all witnesses were asked to leave, and, Shapero noted, her “interests are not adverse to the defendants’.”
“I don’t think she’s terribly an important witness one way or another,” Eugene Martinez said following the hearing. But, he added: “She doesn’t feel comfortable testifying for the prosecution.”
The district attorney’s office had pursued three counts of attempted murder because Martinez allegedly fired into the group of three men, but Shapero decided to have Martinez stand trial on just the one count. Two of the men were not injured.
“I think the judge made the right decision in dismissing the two counts,” Eugene Martinez said. “I don’t think there was sufficient evidence to show my client ever intended to kill them.”
The defense cross-examined most of the witnesses who testified Thursday, but in preliminary hearings normally does not present evidence of its own. In questioning Martinez’s wife, Eugene Martinez brought up possible methamphetamine use and mental problems, including paranoia.
“I can’t be specific right now, … but I think the evidence will show that he was incapable of formulating specific intent to do anything that day,” the lawyer said after court. When asked if the defendant was incapable due to methamphetamine use, he said: “I think that’s what the evidence will show.”
Scott presented only some of his witnesses and evidence Thursday, and did not provide any of the physical evidence, including ballistics linking the gun found in Martinez’s vehicle to the gun used in the shooting, and gunpowder residue found on the defendant’s hands.
