Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text

Bryan Martinez

Opening statements given in capital murder trial

Martinez Trial
Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Prosecutors and the defense made opening statements in the capital murder trial of Bryan Martinez on Tuesday in the 274th District Court. 

Martinez is facing a charge of capital murder for allegedly shooting Isaac Olvera in October 2015 in what police called a drug deal gone wrong. According to the affidavit of probable cause, Martinez and two other people went to a residence in the 1300 block of Thorpe Lane for a drug deal. Martinez tried to enter carrying a sawed-off shotgun, and when a struggle broke out, the affidavit says, Martinez shot Olvera. 

Rebecca Culpepper from the Hays County District Attorney’s office read the indictment of Martinez accusing him of killing Olvera with a deadly weapon while on premises to commit a robbery. Martinez pleaded not guilty. 

Ralph Guerrero, first assistant district attorney, made the opening statements for the prosecution.

“When one of the guys you’re trying to rob at gunpoint strikes you in self-defense, causing you to pull the trigger and shoot him at point blank, it’s not an accident. It’s capital murder,” Guerrero told the jury. 

Guerrero said that in statements to police, Martinez admitted it was his sawed-off shotgun and that he had practiced with it, and that it was his intent to steal drugs the night that Olvera was shot. 

“He initially told the police he wasn’t even there,” Guerrero said, adding that Martinez later changed his story to say that he was there but unarmed, then changed his story again and told police that he was there and had the gun but that the shooting was accidental. 

Guerrero went over the alleged details of the incident, in which Martinez and two other men – Lamount Harvey and Jonathan Guia – arrived at the residence where Harvey had set up a deal for Guia and Martinez to buy marijuana.

“People on the outside [of the apartment] thought he [Martinez] might be carrying something,” Guerrero said. “... A piece of wood. It wasn’t a piece of wood. It was a sawed-off shotgun.”

Guerrero said that when Olvera saw the barrel of the gun, he lunged toward Martinez. At some point, Guerrero said, “He leaned into the barrel of that shotgun.”

When police and EMS arrived, Guerrero said, “As he’s dying, they’re asking him who did this. … And he provides that dying declaration: ‘Johnny. Tattoos.’”

“Johnny” – Guia – was the only one of the three men Olvera knew, Guerrero said, and was the man standing next to Martinez. Later, police were able to get an arrest warrant and search warrant for Martinez. When they searched his residence, they found the sawed-off shotgun hidden under the house. 

Guerrero said the crucial piece of evidence will be firearms testing of the gun. Firearms expert Tim Counce tested the gun, Guerrero said, and found that just pulling the trigger – as might have occurred accidentally – does not make the gun fire. It also has to be cocked. Guerrero said that the only other way the gun fired was if the side of it was hit with a hammer. 

Case J. Darwin, Martinez’s court-appointed defense attorney, argued that Martinez did not have the intent to kill anyone when he went to the residence on Thorpe Lane.

“He had the specific intent to go and rob a drug dealer,” he said, asking the jury to find Martinez guilty of “the correct charge of felony murder.”

Darwin said that Martinez took a cocked, loaded sawed-off shotgun with him to commit the robbery, but, “He doesn’t even make it inside the apartment,” and did not know anyone there. 

When Olvera saw Martinez with the gun, Darwin said, “He goes and attacks Bryan. He punches him, hits him … evidence is going to show he got in front of the gun.”

Darwin said that witnesses will say the men were there to steal drugs – not to kill someone. Moreover, he said, firearms testing showed that the weapon has a malfunction and will discharge accidentally if struck hard on the side.

Darwin told the jury that the defense is asking them to find Martinez not guilty of capital murder but guilty of felony murder.

“We’re simply asking that you hold Bryan accountable for the right charge,” he said. 

rblackburn@sanmarcosrecord.com

Twitter: @arobingoestweet

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666