No sentence yet in Martinez trial

A short clip of a video visit to Bryan Martinez in jail became a point of contention in the closing arguments in the sentencing phase of Martinez’s murder trial.

In the video, Martinez’s visitors are shown joking about the murder and after they begin laughing, Martinez begins laughing as well. 

Martinez’s attorneys argued that his laughter was a form of mimicking, something that a doctor testified Martinez does because of his low IQ and difficulty understanding social situations. However, prosecutors argued that the video shows a lack of remorse.

“At that moment, he showed you who he truly is,” prosecuting attorney Rebecca Culpepper told the jury. “... I hope that made you furious, because it should.”

Defense attorney James Reeves pointed to earlier testimony that Martinez had a largely absent father and an incarcerated mother when he was growing up, and that he had been diagnosed with a low IQ and other conditions that contribute to poor impulse control. 

“That’s not an excuse,” Reeves told the jury, but showed how “a good little kid — and I believe they’re all good — as they grow up, they get derailed on the way.”

The defense also argued that Martinez could become a useful member of society in time with correct treatment and vocational training and asked the jury to consider whether Martinez is “salvageable.”

Prosecutors did not agree. Citing numerous criminal violations when he was a minor, ranging from possession of marijuana to assault, Culpepper said, “He cannot stop, ladies and gentlemen, and he’s escalating.”

Reeves criticized the district attorney’s office for charging Martinez with capital murder, saying that the “improper” charge led to a two-week trial when the defendant was pleading guilty to murder the entire time. 

When Reeves argued that Martinez’s laughter in the video — delayed by two seconds from when his visitors began laughing — was mimicry rather than an expression of disdain, prosecutor Ralph Guerrero called it into question.

“Did Mr. Reeves just tell you to take into account two seconds?” Guerrero asked the jury. “Are you kidding me?”

Echoing remarks he made during the opening of the punishment phase of Martinez’s trial, Guerrero called the shooting “as inevitable as it was tragic.” He also asked why it is that none of Martinez’s relatives who had been victimized by him over the years testified in this trial. He urged the jury to find a way to protect “the inevitable next victim” from Martinez and to set the price for committing a crime like this in the San Marcos community.

“Do we want a price so low that [people say] ‘I can afford that’?” he asked. “Or do we want a price that nobody wants to pay?”

The jury began deliberations shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday. The range of punishment for felony murder is either life in prison or a sentence of five to 99 years with the possible addition of a fine of up to $10,000. Prosecutors are asking for a life sentence. 

rblackburn@sanmarcosrecord.com

Twitter: @arobingoestweet