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Thread: Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman Sentenced to LWOP in 2019 NV Multiple Murders

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Martinez-Guzman's lawyers want to postpone murder trial to conduct mental evaluation

    Lawyers for a Salvadoran immigrant charged with killing four Northern Nevadans in January last year want to postpone his murder trial indefinitely until their experts can safely travel to South America to interview his family and friends as part of a mental disability evaluation.

    On Monday, public defenders for Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 21, filed a motion of continuance for his trial, which was set to start on Aug. 31.

    Martinez-Guzman is accused of murdering 56-year-old Connie Koontz and 74-year-old Sophia Renken, both of Gardnerville, and Reno couple Jerry and Sherri David, both in their 80s.

    According to court records, his defense team argued they need to send their medical experts to El Salvador to interview his family members, friends and other acquaintances to determine whether he has an intellectual disability that would make him ineligible for the death penalty if convicted.

    The only obstacle preventing their experts from traveling is the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Frustration on both sides
    According to his defense team, Martinez-Guzman is only "seeking to have the time necessary to conduct a reliable investigation" so that the court can decide if he lives or dies.

    “The only party that will benefit from an unreliable investigation, in the short term, is the State,” defense attorneys later said in their argument filed Monday.

    The recent court filings were made following a three-day hearing in late July.

    At the end of the hearing, Second District Court Judge Connie Steinheimer ordered both parties to file their arguments before she could make a ruling on the case.

    Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks said his team plans to respond within the next 10 days.

    “We think the victims and the victims’ family members deserve better and that the trial needs to go forward,” Hicks said in a recent interview with the Reno Gazette Journal.

    Hicks argued the defense’s experts should be able to conduct their evaluation using Internet-based communication platforms such as Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime.

    He emphasized that Martinez-Guzman has also been using Zoom to talk to his relatives in El Salvador.

    “We can’t just throw our hands up in the air and suspend this trial indefinitely until who knows when,” Hicks said.

    Meanwhile, Martinez-Guzman’s lawyers argued it’s necessary for their expert to assess and understand what his life was like growing up.

    That means understanding the community, the church, the school and the neighborhood that their client lived in.

    The investigation would also look at whether Martinez-Guzman was exposed to harmful substances as a baby or if he was traumatized, mistreated or neglected.

    It also means talking to school teachers, friends, neighbors and anyone else he interacted with.

    Exclusive story:Carson City woman speaks about her friendship with murder suspect Wilber Martinez-Guzman

    “There is no workaround that is acceptable,” Martinez-Guzman’s attorneys said in their court filing. “There is no other method, including Zoom or phone calls that have been relied on in any other capital case during this pandemic.”

    The defense team also argued most records would likely need to be requested in person.

    Hicks said it’s common for defense attorneys to assert that their clients are intellectually disabled, particularly in capital cases.



    https://www.rgj.com/story/news/crime...or/3395964001/
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  2. #22
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    Judge confirms Douglas, Reno murders’ case can be tried in Washoe County

    By Kurt Hildebrand
    Nevada Appeal

    A Washoe County judge denied an attempt by attorneys to dismiss charges against a man accused of killing two Gardnerville Ranchos women in their homes in January 2019.

    Connie Koontz and Sophia Renken were shot to death in their homes three days apart within blocks of one another.

    Salvadoran Wilber Martinez-Guzman is facing the death penalty in connection with those two murders and those of Reno couple Gerald and Sharon David.

    Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson and Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks decided to prosecute the case in Washoe County, where there were more resources to deal with a death penalty case. The Washoe County Grand Jury issued indictments in all four murders, prompting the challenge from Martinez-Guzman’s public defenders.

    On Wednesday, Washoe County District Judge Connie Steinheimer ruled the Washoe Grand Jury’s indictment of Martinez-Guzman in the two Douglas murders was valid.

    If the charges were dismissed in Washoe County, they could be refiled in Douglas.

    Next week, a hearing has been set to determine if Martinez-Guzman’s trial will be set off indefinitely.

    His attorneys are seeking background witnesses from El Salvador to discover if he is competent, and because of the coronavirus outbreak, travelers aren’t permitted in the country.

    According to background included with Steinheimer’s order, Martinez-Guzman burglarized the Davids’ property and found the revolver and ammunition allegedly used in the murders.

    Following his arrest on Jan. 19, 2019, he told a detective that he was working for a landscaper in 2018.

    According to the grand jury transcript, he told the detective that he knew that Renken had tools and machines in her garage because he’d previously worked at her house. He had been cleaning a yard near where Koontz lived. His original plan was to take things from the homes and sell them for money.

    “Only after stealing the revolver and ammunition from Washoe County did Mr. Guzman decide to enter the victims’ homes to obtain more valuable personal property, such as jewelry, phones and computers, and to kill the elderly occupants therein,” according to an interview.

    Guzman took an iMac, an iWatch, a neckless and jewelry from Koontz’ home. It was an attempt to log on with the stolen iWatch that led investigators to Martinez Guzman.

    https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/ju...washoe-county/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

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  3. #23
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    New appeal to Nevada Supreme Court in four 2019 killings

    RENO, Nev. (AP) — Lawyers for a 21-year-old Salvadoran immigrant accused of killing four northern Nevada residents last year are asking the state Supreme Court to again overturn a judge’s ruling allowing him to be tried in Reno for crimes that occurred in another county.

    Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman’s public defenders argue the Washoe County District Court lacks jurisdiction to try him for the two killings and burglaries he’s accused of committing in rural Douglas County last year.

    The high court agreed with them, in part, and ordered Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer to revisit the matter in March. But she ruled again last month that prosecutors had sufficiently connected the crimes to try Martinez-Guzman in one location.

    Martinez-Guzman faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of the killing of an elderly Reno couple and two Gardnerville women in their homes during what authorities say was a 10-day rampage in two counties in January 2019.

    His lawyers said in their latest appeal to the Supreme Court that each of the Douglas County charges occurred solely in Douglas County and that each of the Washoe County charges occurred solely in Washoe County.

    “They are temporally and spatially distinct; they do not constitute a continuing offense,” the defense lawyers wrote in asking the high court to again order Steinheimer to invalidate the Washoe County grand jury indictment regarding the crimes outside the county.

    The trial originally was scheduled to begin in April but Steinheimer vacated the date and has scheduled a hearing Oct. 23 on a defense motion to suspend it indefinitely.

    The defense lawyers have said they need to go to Martinez-Guzman’s home country of El Salvador - where travel currently is prohibited due to COVID-19 - to gather information to help determine if their client has an intellectual disability that would make it illegal to execute him.

    Federal officials have said Martinez-Guzman is in the U.S. illegally, but they don’t know how or when he arrived in the U.S. The case has drawn the attention of President Donald Trump, who used it to bolster to bolster his argument for a border wall.

    Prosecutors have said Martinez-Guzman stole a revolver from Gerald and Sharon David in Reno Jan. 4, 2019. He fatally shot Constance Koontz on Jan. 9, killed Sophia Renken on Jan. 12 and robbed and killed the Davids on Jan. 15, authorities have said. The crimes are linked partly because the same gun was used in all of the killings, they added.

    Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Marilee Cate told the justices in November 2019 that the intent for the Douglas County killings was formed in Washoe County.

    “The facts of this case are so intertwined that his possession of the firearm was an act requisite to consummation of the crimes in Douglas County,” Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson said.

    Washoe County public defender John Arrascada and chief deputy public defender John Reese Petty said in the new appeal that the court in Reno lacks jurisdiction to try Martinez-Guzman for the crimes in Gardnerville because the activity in Washoe County is “incidental or marginal and not essential” to the Douglas County charges.

    “There was no evidence presented to the grand jury that he specifically sought to obtain a revolver or that at the time he took the revolver (and other property) he planned to keep or even use it. The revolver’s later use in Douglas County is not a jurisdictionally significant act for purposes of placing venue for the Douglas County charges” in Washoe County, they wrote.

    The defense lawyers added: “The completed act of taking property (including the revolver) in Washoe County should not be used to `bootstrap’ venue of the Douglas County charges” into Washoe County court

    https://mynews4.com/news/local/new-a...-2019-killings
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  4. #24
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Nevada Supreme Court Mulls Appeal in 2019 Quadruple Homicide

    Nevada’s Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments next month in a death penalty dispute over how much more time public defenders should get to try to prove a Salvadoran immigrant accused of four killings is intellectually disabled

    By Scott Sonner
    Associated Press

    RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada's Supreme Court wants to hear directly from lawyers on both sides in a death penalty dispute over how much more time public defenders should have to try to prove a Salvadoran immigrant is intellectually disabled and can't be executed if convicted of four 2019 Nevada killings.

    The justices have scheduled oral arguments April 7 on one of two appeals filed by lawyers representing Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 22.
    Public defenders say a Washoe County judge has illegally set a premature April 20 deadline to file a motion to declare him intellectually disabled — five months before the trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 20.

    The high court also is considering whether Washoe and Douglas counties' district attorneys can prosecute him in court in Reno for all four of the January 2019 homicides. His lawyers say the Washoe County grand jury that indicted him has no jurisdiction over two Douglas County killings.

    Prosecutors disagree. They argue the crimes are linked, partly because the same gun was used in all four killings during an 11-day crime rampage.

    Washoe County Chief Public Defender John Arrascada told Judge Connie Steinheimer during a July 2019 hearing he anticipated filing an intellectual disability motion that would bar Martinez-Guzman's execution.

    Deputy Defender John Reese Petty said in their most recent Supreme Court filings the motion hasn't been filed yet because they’ve been unable to gather necessary evidence in Guzman’s native El Salvador due largely to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

    The defense says Steinheimer's deadline violates Nevada law, which gives defendants facing the death penalty up to 10 days prior to trial to file the motion.

    “This court must allow him the opportunity to investigate, collect, analyze and marshal the best and most reliable evidence on his intellectual disability,” Petty wrote.

    Nevada law defines “intellectually disabled” as “significant sub-average general intellectual functioning which exists concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the development period."

    A clinical psychologist concluded in an evaluation that’s been sealed in district court that Martinez-Guzman’s general intellectual and cognitive test scores fell well below levels needed to satisfy key elements of Nevada’s execution exemption, the defense said.

    But the defenders say the vast majority of information concerning Martinez-Guzman’s formative years is in El Salvador, where he was born before coming to the United States at age 17. Federal officials have said he’s is in the U.S. illegally, but they don’t know how or when he arrived.

    Much of the dispute centers on Steinheimer’s insistence Martinez-Guzman’s legal team doesn’t necessarily need to travel to El Salvador. She has said that face-to-face interviews are preferable, but there’s “no legal requirement that the interviews and assessments of informants be in person.”

    She has pointed to “technological advances ... being utilized around the world’’ and suggests alternatives such as video hookups.

    The defense argues that while such alternatives are used for gathering rudimentary information, they’re unacceptable in a capital case.

    “The stakes are high,” said Dr. Antonio Puentes, a bilingual neuropsychologist who testified for the defense at a hearing last July. He said if “you want the real deal that stands up to science and stands up to any kind of legal challenge, then it is all face-to-face.”

    Prosecutors haven’t responded since the Supreme Court set oral arguments. But they wrote in related filings opposing a stay in proceedings in district court — until after the high court rules — that Martinez-Guzman’s lawyers have made a “tactical decision” to wait until closer to the trial to file the disability motion because it will trigger an automatic stay.

    They argue Nevada law specifies only that such motions cannot occur less than 10 days before the trial date and doesn’t address whether a judge can set a deadline further out.

    “The matter has been continued due to circumstances beyond the direct control of all involved,” District Attorneys Chris Hicks of Washoe and Mark Jackson of Douglas wrote Monday.

    While the delay benefits Martinez-Guzman by allowing more time to further investigate his disability motion, they said, “the effects of time wear on the recollection, health and availability of the witnesses that the state would use to support its case.”

    https://www.usnews.com/news/politics...ruple-homicide
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  5. #25
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    Nevada Supreme Court Justices Strike Down Deadline in Death Penalty Case

    Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 20

    KTVN News

    The Nevada Supreme Court has struck down a filing deadline a district judge had set later this month in an effort to avoid further delay in the trial of a Salvadoran man accused of four killings in 2019.

    A Washoe County judge had set an April 20 deadline for public defenders to file a motion claiming Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman is intellectually disabled so can’t be executed if convicted of murdering a Reno couple and two other woman.

    The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 20.

    The high court agreed Friday with his lawyers who argue such motions can be filed up to 10 days before the trial.

    https://www.ktvn.com/story/43623573/...nezguzman-case
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #26
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    Supreme Court denies defense petition in Guzman case

    The Record Courier

    An effort by defenders of a man accused in the brutal January 2019 murders of 2 Gardnerville Ranchos women to delay filing a motion having him declared intellectually disabled was denied by the Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday. Connie Koontz and Sophia Renkin were shot and killed within days of one another in January 2019, along with Reno couple Gerald and Sharon David.

    Salvadoran Wilber Ernesto Guzman, 20, is facing a September trial in Washoe County District Court for using a stolen gun to kill the 4 people.

    While not deciding the merits of the claims, the Supreme Court declined to exercise jurisdiction in the case.

    Defense attorneys have said they plan to have Guzman declared intellectually disabled, but as justices pointed out in their denial, they’ve yet to file the motion.

    In Nevada, someone who is intellectually disabled cannot be subject to the death penalty.

    The decision also lifted a stay on a deadline set by District Judge Connie Steinheimer to have the motion filed.

    Since the motion wasn’t filed, Steinheimer never had an opportunity to hear or rule on it. That deadline passed 2 months ago, so Steinheimer will have to set a new one.

    Under Nevada law, the deadline to file a motion seeking to have Guzman declared intellectually disabled is 10 days before trial, which is scheduled for September.

    Defense attorneys have argued that due to the coronavirus outbreak, they haven’t been able to send an expert to El Salvador to interview his family members.

    However, prosecutors pointed out that Guzman talks to his family regularly on the phone and that there isn’t any reason the defense expert couldn’t interview them the same way.

    Prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court to stop hearing appeals from the defense pending the trial.

    Justices are still considering a challenge to Guzman’s Washoe County indictment in the 2 Douglas murders. It has been 2 months since that case was submitted for a decision.

    Should the Supreme Court rule that the Washoe County Grand Jury didn’t have the authority to indict Guzman for the Douglas County cases, he would have to be tried in Douglas on those murders. Jackson’s involvement in the Washoe County proceedings could help with those proceedings. If the case was ordered tried in Minden, judges here would likely have to appoint new counsel for him, since he is being represented by the Washoe County Public Defender’s Office.

    https://www.recordcourier.com/news/2...n-guzman-case/

  7. #27
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    Nevada Supreme Court orders separate trials in four killings

    By Scott Sonner
    Assciated Press

    RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Salvadoran immigrant accused of killing four people during a string of crimes in 2019 must be tried separately in both counties where the slayings took place.

    Prosecutors argued that Wilber Ernesto Martinez Guzman should be tried for all four killings in Washoe County, where a grand jury indicted him on four murder and five burglary charges.

    In a 5-2 decision, the justices agreed with Martinez Guzman’s public defenders that he is entitled to two trials, one in Washoe County for the deaths of a Reno couple and another in Douglas County for two women who were fatally shot in separate homes in rural Gardnerville.

    The court ordered a Washoe County judge to dismiss the charges related to Douglas County because the grand jury in Reno lacked proper jurisdiction to indict him for those crimes.

    The trial had been scheduled to begin early next year in Reno. Martinez Guzman was in the country illegally and had worked as a landscaper at all three properties where the four were killed over a two-week period, police said. They said he confessed to the shootings.

    They say he stole a .22 caliber revolver from Gerald and Sharon David’s Reno home on Jan. 4, 2019, burglarized and killed Connie Koontz five days later, then did the same to Sophia Renken the next week before burglarizing and killing the Davids on Jan. 15.

    Prosecutors said the ruling will further delay a resolution in the case and that they will have to prosecute the same facts twice.

    However, Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks said the prosecution remains his highest priority. Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson said the families of the victims “know our commitment to seeking justice for the senseless murders of their loved ones.”

    They are seeking the death penalty if Martinez Guzman is convicted in the killings.

    Prosecutors had argued that Nevada law allowed for one trial because the facts in the cases were “intertwined,” including evidence showing Martinez Guzman shot all four victims with the same gun he stole from the Davids’ residence.

    Those theories “were too speculative and unsupported by the evidence” to allow the Douglas County killings to be tried in Washoe County, Justice Lidia Stiglich wrote in the majority opinion.

    Justice Kristina Pickering, joined by Justice Ron Parraguirre, wrote in dissenting opinion that prosecutors had presented enough evidence that all the crimes were interconnected to warrant one trial in Washoe County.

    “But for obtaining the revolver in Washoe, he could not have committed the Douglas offenses,” she wrote.

    The majority acknowledged that the case “touches on an important and largely unsettled legal question in Nevada: what nexus between where a crime is committed and where it is charged must exist to make venue proper?”

    While Nevada law provides some exceptions allowing some crimes to be prosecuted in more than one county, the prosecution had failed to satisfy the standards, the court said.

    The majority said prosecutors argue that Martinez Guzman “had an original plan to rob outbuildings and garages on the three properties and then changed his intent after finding the Davids’ firearm in Washoe County.”

    “There is no evidence that Martinez Guzman took the firearm in preparation for the burglaries and murder in Douglas County,” the ruling says.

    In the dissent, Pickering wrote that the Legislature has passed laws to allow some crimes to be prosecuted in more than one county because there’s no reason “to conduct multiple trials and risk inconsistent results” when crimes are connected enough.

    “This is to say nothing of the level of extreme anguish communities, victims, victims’ families and criminal defendants face at the prospect of the sort of duplicate proceedings the majority’s approach would foster,” she said.

    https://apnews.com/article/immigrati...199193aaa45282
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #28
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Salvadoran man admits guilt in 4 Nevada killings

    RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Salvadoran immigrant agreed Thursday to plead guilty to all crimes in the killing of four Nevada residents as part of a deal with prosecutors that will spare him from two death penalty trials and put him in prison for the rest of his life with no possibility of appeals or parole.

    Wilber Ernesto Martinez Guzman, 22, pleaded guilty after intense questioning by Washoe County District Court Judge Connie Steinheimer in Reno to two counts of first-degree murder in the January 2019 deaths of Gerald and Sharon David in their Reno home.

    Steinheimer acknowledged the plea took the death penalty off the table and told Martinez Guzman he will have to enter formal guilty pleas in Douglas County to the killings of two women in Gardnerville during his two-week string of crimes.

    In addition to four consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole, Martinez Guzman faces a minimum of another 214 years in prison for multiple burglary, larceny, weapons and possession of stolen property charges under the plea agreement outlined in court.

    “He will never be free,” Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks said about the deal unveiled just before a status hearing was scheduled Thursday morning.

    Hicks told reporters after the two-hour hearing that the decision to drop pursuit of the death penalty came as a result of a direct appeal from families of the victims who didn’t want the case to continue for years longer.

    “They shared a collective request for closure and finality in the case,” Hicks said. “As a result of his pleas, there will not be decades of appeals that have become common in death penalty litigation.”

    Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson added: “They want this nightmare to end. They want justice.”

    Martinez Guzman told police he committed the series of break-ins, thefts and shootings over a three-week stretch because he needed money to buy methamphetamine.

    Steinheimer told Martinez Guzman on Thursday if he fails to plead guilty in Douglas County, prosecutors there and Washoe County can void his plea deal and again seek the death penalty. Martinez Guzman also has agreed to plead guilty to multiple burglary and possession of stolen property charges in Carson City. The judge tentatively set sentencing for Feb. 28.

    Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Martinez Guzman responded to dozens of questions from the judge intended to establish that he was making an informed decision to plead guilty based on his own choice and understanding of the law.

    “I spoke with my attorneys and understand after I plead, I will spend the rest of my life in prison,” Martinez Guzman said. “I believe it is the best way to close my case ... It makes it so they remove the death penalty.”

    Public defender John Arrascada assured Steinheimer Martinez Guzman’s decision was his own.

    Hicks and Jackson initially planned one death penalty trial for Martinez Guzman in Reno, but the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Sept. 30 that the defendant would have to be tried separately in the two county jurisdictions.

    Authorities said Martinez Guzman stole a .22-caliber handgun from the Davids’ southwest Reno home on Jan. 4, 2019; shot and killed Constance Koontz, 56, and Sophia Renken, 74, in separate attacks in their Gardnerville homes several days later; and returned to the Davids’ house to rob and kill them Jan 15.

    Gerald David, 81, and his 80-year-old wife were prominent in the Reno Rodeo Association and had employed Martinez Guzman as a landscaper the summer before.

    Martinez Guzman was arrested in Carson City during a manhunt that had investigators track an Apple watch stolen from Koontz to Martinez Guzman’s mother.

    Martinez Guzman has been held without bail at the Washoe County jail in Reno.

    Washoe County sheriff’s Detective Stefanie Brady told a grand jury several weeks after Martinez Guzman’s arrest that he initially denied wrongdoing but later acknowledged through an interpreter he had “done something that’s unforgiveable.”

    “He said he needed the money for the meth,” Brady testified.

    The case drew attention at the time from then-President Donald Trump, who said it showed the need to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Authorities said he was in the country illegally but they didn’t how or when he arrived.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/prosecuto...152553762.html
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  9. #29
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    Spree killer’s admissions wrap up in Carson City

    By Geoff Dornan

    Just as his murder spree ended with his capture in Carson City, the 22-year-old Salvadoran man who killed Gardnerville Ranchos residents Connie Koontz and Sophia Renken in their homes completed admissions to his crimes in the capital on Tuesday.

    It will have been more than three years after Wilber Ernesto Martinez Guzman, 22, killed four Western Nevadans over the course of a week in January 2019 before his sentencings in Douglas, Washoe and Carson City.

    In exchange for not seeking the death penalty, Guzman agreed to admit to all charges and recommend the maximum sentence on a dozen charges, including four counts of first-degree murder, each of which carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Carson City District Judge James Wilson conducted an hour-long canvass of Guzman to ensure that he understood all eight charges, the evidence against him, his rights and his possible penalties.

    Guzman, again through a court certified interpreter, answered Wilson’s questions most times with a simple “yes, your honor, I understand.”

    He was charged with the January 2019 murders of Koontz and Renken in Douglas County and the murders of Jerry and Sherry David in Reno.

    After the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that charges from all three counties could not be combined into one trial in Washoe County, prosecutors said the families of the deceased did not want to suffer through separate trials so they decided not to seek the death penalty.

    In Carson City, Guzman was facing three burglary charges, four of possessing and pawning stolen property and one as a prohibited person in possession of a firearm because he is an illegal alien. The maximum penalties on those counts would add up to 54 years.

    In Washoe County, which had significantly more charges against him, he was looking at a potential 80 years in prison and in Douglas County, 70 years behind bars.

    Sentencing before Washoe County District Judge Connie Steinheimer is set for Feb. 28. Sentencings in Douglas County and Carson City are set for March 3 and 4.

    https://www.recordcourier.com/news/2...p-carson-city/
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  10. #30
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    Update: Shooter gets maximum sentence in Washoe County

    By Kurt Hildebrand
    The Record-Courier

    Update: The man who murdered Reno residents Jerry and Sherry David asked for the maximum sentence, and Washoe County District Judge Connie Steinheimer obliged.

    Wilber Martinez-Guzman, 22, received the maximum sentence on two murder charges with a firearm enhancement on Monday.

    In addition to the murder charges, he also was sentenced to the maximum for stealing the pistol he used during a two-week killing spree.

    All six counts will run consecutively, Washoe District Attorney’s Office Spokeswoman Michelle Bay said. He was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.

    Martinez-Guzman is still to be sentenced in the murders of Gardnerville Ranchos residents Connie Koontz on Jan. 9 and Sophia Renken on Jan. 13 in their homes a few blocks apart.

    The shootings put Carson Valley residents on edge for the nine days before he was finally captured.

    Koontz’s death started the murder spree that Guzman would later tell detectives was spurred by a desire for drug money.

    It was Koontz’s Apple iWatch that provided a key clue to tracking Guzman down. He tried to power it up from his mother’s address which led Carson City Sheriff’s investigators to arrest him on Jan. 19, 2019. He has been in custody ever since.

    Martinez-Guzman is scheduled to be sentenced in Douglas County District Court on Thursday and in Carson City District Court on Friday.

    He faces two life sentences without possibility of parole with a deadly weapon enhancement when he appears before District Judge Tom Gregory on Thursday.

    https://www.recordcourier.com/news/2...-murders-set-/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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