As the four co-defendants in a controversial murder case appeared in court today, they saw a packed courtroom that included family, friends, the parents of the victim and the 1-week-old baby of one of the defendants.
Attorneys for Cristian Jimenez, 21, Heather Ashford, 18, Robert Barrios, 20, and Angel Solorzano, 19, conferred with their clients before requesting a continuance while they sort out the complicated case. The foursome faces murder charges in connection with the death of Larry Martinez, 18. Three Sureno gang members, including Jimenez and two outstanding suspects - Edgardo Centeno and an unnamed juvenile - shot Martinez in the chest just blocks away from the Gilroy Police Department in November, police said.
The other three defendants are Martinez's friends and a cousin who were on Martinez's side and definitely did not fire the bullets that killed him, District Attorney Dolores Carr said. Yet they face murder charges under a rarely invoked rule - the provocative act murder theory - because they instigated a crime that provoked his death, Carr said.
Barrios, Solorzano and Martinez were Norteno gang members at the time of the shooting, police said. However, Martinez's family said while he had ties to gangs when he was younger, he denounced that life and recently got out of jail with intentions to take up the family business and turn his life around. Still grieving the loss of Martinez, family members were stunned when police arrested two of Martinez's friends and a cousin for his murder.
Ashford - who remained in the car during the scuffle that eventually led to the death of Martinez, her cousin - gave birth in jail soon after her arrest, family members said. Family members cradled the few-day-old infant during the hearing. Monica Fernandez - Martinez's mother and Ashford's aunt - requested the judge grant Ashford bail, but the request is still pending.
Ashford and her co-defendants' charges stem from a gang shooting that took place about 1:20 p.m. Nov. 11, 2008, when three Sureno gang members shot Martinez in the chest after Martinez - brandishing a baseball bat - Solorzano and Barrios approached the group from behind, according to court documents. When the Surenos produced two handguns and opened fire, Solorzano and Barrios escaped in a waiting car, driven by Ashford. Martinez died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Half an hour before the shooting, the same three Sureno gang members threw a rock at the car Martinez and Solorzano rode in with Ashford at the wheel, according to witness reports. After a brief discussion, Ashford, Martinez and Solorzano picked up Barrios and returned to confront the Surenos, police said.
In police interviews, Solorzano and Barrios admitted to being at the scene of the shooting with the intent to fight the Surenos who threw the rock, police said. Ashford admitted to driving the three men - Martinez, Solorzano and Barrios - knowing their intent to fight, according to court documents.
But Martinez's family said their son fought back to defend his pregnant cousin.
"A pregnant girl's not going to get out and confront these guys on her own," said Mike Fernandez, the victim's step-father.
Martinez's family decried the provocative act murder theory as "ridiculous," saying that Martinez and his friends and cousin had no idea their actions would result in Martinez's death.
"Those boys are like my son's brothers," Monica Fernandez said of Barrios and Solorzano. "My son grew up with them."
Wearing a dark dress and heels, Monica Fernandez said the confrontation stemmed from the rock being thrown - an event her son and his friends had "no control over." Upon her son's release after three years in jail, Fernandez cautioned him that things had changed while he was gone.
"They use knives and guns now," she remembered telling Martinez before his death.
During the hearing, Barrios and Solorzano sat side by side behind Ashford. Jimenez sat apart from the male defendants, in the front row with the female defendants. A deputy was stationed outside the courtroom to maintain order when friends and family members of the defendants poured out of the courtroom.
"This was no planned attack," said Fernandez, who drove 1.5 hours from her home in Dos Palos to attend the hearing and said she plans to be at every future hearing to support her son's friends and cousin.
However, prosecutors disagreed, saying that after gathering additional people and returning with a baseball bat to settle the dispute by sneaking up on a rival gang, Martinez and his companions should have known their actions could have provoked a deadly response.
Sky Martinez, 20, the victim's sister, said her family is still coping with the loss of their son and brother and can't believe this new turn of events.
"It's opening old wounds," she said, bouncing her son on her hip outside the courtroom. "It's making healing harder than it should be."
The defendants are scheduled to enter pleas 1:30 p.m. June 30 in Department 109 of the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill.
Sara Suddes Sara Suddes is the education reporter for South Valley Newspapers. Send her an email or (408) 847-7158.
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