Jurors find Martinez guilty of lesser charge

A jury of three men and 11 women found Bryan Martinez guilty of the charge of murder in a trial that has lasted more than a week. Judge Gary Steel accepted the verdict on Wednesday.

Martinez initially was charged with murder, but the charge was upgraded to capital murder. He was on trial for the fatal shooting of Isaac Olvera in October 2015 in what police called a drug deal gone wrong. Martinez and two other people went to a residence on Thorpe Lane to purchase drugs, according to the affidavit of probable cause. Olvera was at the residence where the deal was supposed to occur. Martinez entered the residence carrying a sawed-off shotgun, and when a struggle broke out, the affidavit says, Martinez shot Olvera. Martinez’s attorneys asked the jury to find him guilty of murder, but not capital murder, alleging that the shooting was an accident rather than intentional. 

Ralph Guerrero, first assistant district attorney, argued during opening statements, “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.” 

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.”

Jury selection for the trial was held on Aug. 20, and opening arguments were given Aug. 21. Attorneys gave closing arguments on Aug. 28. The jury deliberated a few hours before returning the verdict Wednesday morning.

The punishment phase of the trial began Wednesday afternoon with the prosecutors presenting new evidence, as is allowed during the sentencing phase of a trial. 

Ralph Guerrero from the Hays County District Attorney’s Office called the incident on Oct. 2, 2015, “as tragic as it was predictable.”

Guerrero said that when Martinez shot Olvera, he was already on 10 years probation for stabbing a family member in the eye. The prosecutors then played a segment of a recording of Martinez’s interview with police in which he said he already had 10 years probation for “something in Guadalupe.” 

Guerrero said the jury will hear from juvenile probation officers who supervised Martinez off and on between 2009 and 2013 and would hear about the home environment in which Martinez grew up.

 According to the district attorney’s office, the range of punishment for murder is either life in prison or a term of five to 99 years.  The jury may also assess a fine of up to $10,000.

rblackburn@sanmarcosrecord.com

Twitter: @arobingoestweet