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Thread: Ernesto Salgado Martinez - Arizona Death Row

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Murderer Ernesto Martinez on his way to Death Row: ‘Thanks everybody. It’s been amazing.’

    By Brett Kelman
    The Desert Sun

    Ernesto Salgado Martinez walked out of a California courtroom for the last time, smiling at cops and court staff as he was escorted away in chains and shackles.

    “Thanks everybody,” Martinez said, warmly, just before the door shut behind him. “It’s been amazing.”

    Martinez, 42, of Indio, a convicted double murderer who has already spent more than half of his life behind bars, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday – an anti-climactic end to one of the stranger and more convoluted murder trials in the modern history of Riverside County.

    The life sentence is largely inconsequential to Martinez, who has already been sentenced to death in Arizona.The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department would not confirm when Martinez will be transferred to Arizona, saying this information was confidential for “public safety reasons.” John Hall, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office, said the transfer would occur “in a short amount of time."

    But Friday’s hearing does officially end Martinez’s seven-year court case in California, which means Riverside County will now be rid of one of the most devious and dangerous inmates in its local jails.

    Both of Martinez’s murders occurred during a deadly road trip in 1995. Martinez, who was only 19 years old at the time, drove from Indio into Arizona to visit family members, then fatally shot Highway Patrol Officer Bob Martin during a traffic stop

    Martinez then fled back to California, running out of gas just across the state line in Blythe, where he robbed a mini-mart and shot Randip Singh, an Indian immigrant who worked as a cashier.

    During the sentencing hearing on Friday, Judge Charles Koosed said Martinez had shown no signs of remorse for the “callous” killing.

    “Mr. Singh was in the prime of his life,” Koosed said. “He had a wife, a young baby girl and a good job. He had moved here to send money back to his country with the hope they could someday come here.”

    “And it was not just Mr. Singh’s life, Mr. Martinez, that you took that day. You took theirs as well. The only difference is they live every day with the horrific empty feeling of having lost their husband and father to a senseless murder.”

    Martinez was captured in Indio within a day or two of the shootings, then prosecuted first in Arizona, where he was sentenced for to death for Martin’s murder in 1998. Twelve years later, in 2010, California prosecutors pulled Martinez off of Arizona Death Row and brought him back to Riverside County to be tried for Singh’s death.

    Now back in Riverside County, Martinez fired his public defender and became his own attorney, revealing he had taught himself law during his life behind bars. Since then, Martinez has repeatedly deceived and outsmarted authorities, both behind bars and in the courtroom.

    For example, in 2011, Martinez duped a county judge into appointing his mistress as his paralegal, which meant she could call the jail to have sexually explicit phone calls with Martinez under the guise of legal conversations, then charge the county for her time. Later that same year, Martinez requested to be cell mates with another specific inmate, then stabbed that inmate 50 times with a prison shank.

    Martinez has been kept in an isolated cell since that non-fatal stabbing, but jail staff have still discovered jail shanks hidden in his cell. Finally, authorities realized last year that Martinez had discovered a loophole in the jail phone system allowing him to make unmonitored calls from behind bars for years.

    During the sentencing hearing on Friday, law enforcement took no chances. A total of 10 police officers were in the courtroom or guarding the doors from the outside and Martinez was shackled and restrained with security mitts. At one point, the mitts were briefly removed so Martinez could sign legal documents, then Koosed ordered they be put back on immediately.

    Later in the same hearing, however, Koosed openly respected Martinez’s surprisingly talent for law.

    Over the past six months, the convicted killer has defended himself at trial with the professionalism, poise and eloquence of a classically trained attorney. Koosed said Martinez had done an “admirable job of arguing his own case.”

    “There is no doubt about it,” the judge said.

    Deputy District Attorney Chris Cook, who prosecuted Martinez, said that every murder case is a tragedy, but there was a special “loss to society” in this case, where the defendant had so much potential. Martinez once scored a 120 on an IQ test – in the highest 10 percent of scores – and showed elite problem-solving skills, according to court records.

    “What could he have been? Who knows. He could have been a lawyer,” Cook said. “I can’t imagine what good he could have done if he had any desire to do something for other people.”

    https://www.desertsun.com/story/news...-di/555811002/
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  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 27, 2019, oral argument will be heard in Martinez's appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

    https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/calenda...5-27&year=2019

  3. #13
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    The panel hearing Martinez's appeal will be made up of Judges McKeown (Clinton), Fletcher (Clinton) and M. Smith (G.W. Bush).

    https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/calenda...5-28&year=2019

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Court: Man on death row for killing DPS officer not entitled to new trial

    By Howard Fischer
    Arizona Daily Star

    PHOENIX — A California man who killed a Department of Public Safety officer while on a 1995 road trip in a stolen car is not entitled to a new trial, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

    The three-judge panel rejected claims by attorneys for death-row inmate Ernesto Salgado Martinez that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hotham, who presided over the trial, was biased because the judge's bailiff was friends with the widow of DPS officer Robert Martin.

    Hotham did exclude the bailiff from the courtroom during the testimony of the expert witness to avoid even raising the question of whether the bailiff's reaction to "gory photographs'' would have some effect on the jury. Martinez's new lawyer said that showed how the judge was concerned that the bailiff's feelings "might spill over inappropriately.''

    Judge Milan Smith, writing for the appellate panel, said that Martinez could not cite a single case where a bailiff's relationship to the victim's family created the appearance of impropriety.

    "At bottom, Martinez's judicial bias claim is based on unfounded speculation,'' Smith wrote.

    Court records stated Martinez stole a vehicle in California and used it to drive to Arizona to visit friends and family. He also met friend Oscar Fryer in Globe.

    Martin, who had patrolled the area for about two decades, pulled over the stolen car for speeding on the Beeline Highway. Martinez shot him four times, striking him in the hand, neck, back and head, with the last two being fatal.

    Police arrested Martinez in Indio, California, the following day using information furnished by another couple who was driving along the same road — but not before Martinez killed a convenience store clerk there during a robbery.

    He was found guilty on a charge of first-degree murder, two counts of theft and two counts of misconduct involving weapons in the Arizona case.

    Before sentencing, however, Ronald Reinstein, the presiding judge of the criminal division, heard arguments about the bailiff.

    Reinstein said Martinez had demonstrated no prejudice from Hotham presiding over the case. But Reinstein said that because "death is different'' it would be better "to assign another judge to the sentencing.''

    That ended up being Judge Christopher Skelly who imposed the death penalty, which was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court.

    Martinez was also tried and found guilty and sentenced to death in California for the killing there.

    In appealing his Arizona conviction, Martinez also argued that his rights were violated because prosecutors did not inform him that Fryer, who testified at his trial, was using drugs at the time. Martinez also said prosecutors withheld evidence of what benefits they gave to Fryer in exchange for his testimony.

    Smith acknowledged the question of whether a witness was using drugs during the trial would reflect on that person's competence and credibility as a witness. But the appellate court said Martinez presented no evidence that prosecutors were aware of that fact at the time.

    Smith also brushed aside claims by Martinez that his original defense counsel did an ineffective job by failing to retain an expert who would have undermined the prosecution's theory of premeditation. He said there was "sufficient evidence'' in the record to show that Martinez intended to shoot Martin, including testimony by Fryer that Martinez said he has a handgun "for protection'' and told him that if he were stopped by police "he wasn't going back to jail.''

    https://tucson.com/news/local/court-...1deba0b.html#1
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  5. #15
    Senior Member Member RobertH's Avatar
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    I can't wait to see this guy go down. I was working that day with Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and had met Bob Martin once or twice, and responded to the officer down call when he was shot. I hope I live long enough to see him die

    Bob Martin Memorial.jpgBob Martin Hwy.jpg
    Last edited by RobertH; 06-18-2019 at 08:54 PM.

  6. #16
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On September 10, 2019, the Ninth Circuit DENIED Martinez's petition for en banc rehearing.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/Search....c\19-7627.html

  7. #17
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference May 15, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-7627.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

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  8. #18
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 18, 2020, the United States Supreme Court DENIED Martinez's petition for a writ of certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
    Case Numbers: (08-99009)
    Decision Date: June 18, 2019
    Rehearing Denied: September 10, 2019

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-7627.html

  9. #19
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    On May 26, 2021, Martinez filed an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ci...s/ca9/21-99006
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  10. #20
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 16, 2022, the Ninth Circuit DENIED Martinez's appeal. The panel was made up of Judge McKeown (Clinton), Senior Judge Fletcher (Clinton) and Judge Milan Smith (G.W. Bush).

    https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datasto...6/21-99006.pdf

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