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SANTA ANA (CNS) - A 42-year-old man was convicted Thursday of gunning down the abusive boyfriend of one of his associates in a Stanton motel.
Joel Brandon Martinez was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of a gun by a felon, all felonies. Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement for discharge of a gun causing death.
Co-defendants Gilbert Timothy Ramirez and Brandon Garet Iseminger have accepted plea deals. Ramirez was sentenced in March of last year to 10 years and four months in prison while Iseminger is awaiting sentencing.
Co-defendant Amy Lynn Black is awaiting trial on one count of murder and two counts of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell, all felonies.
Martinez, who is scheduled to be sentenced April 19, was convicted of fatally shooting 35-year-old Carlos Beltran Aguilar on the afternoon of Aug. 26, 2019, in the Villa Motel, 11672 Beach Blvd.
In the days leading up to the shooting, Black sent multiple angry text messages to two friends complaining about Aguilar. She also sent messages to Martinez and Aguilar that pointed to her desire to have the victim killed, Senior Deputy District Attorney Alexa Elliott said in her opening statement of the trial.
Black was suspicious Aguilar, who would stay with him whenever he wasn't in jail on drug charges in 2018 and 2019 while they were dating, was cheating with an ex-girlfriend, Elliott said.
Martinez supplied heroin and methamphetamine to Black to sell out of a motel room where she had been staying, Elliott said.
On the night before the killing, Black sent a string of angry text messages to Aguilar, but he did not respond, Elliott said.
The next morning, Aguilar showed up at her motel and the two feuded so loudly it woke up a neighbor elsewhere in the motel, the prosecutor said. The neighbor "hears Amy Black say, `I want to kill you,"' Elliott said. During the conflict, Aguilar damaged Black's motel room door, she added.
Aguilar rode his bike away while Black ran after him hollering at him, "I'm going to make sure you're dead," Elliott said.
Black never called police about the vandalism, Elliott said.
"She's not interested in calling the police," the prosecutor said. "She's making other calls."
Black continued sending insulting and threatening text messages to the victim, Elliott said.
"Everything is about cheating and him leaving her," Elliott said.
Then Black sent a message to Martinez seeking help, but Martinez and his friends had been out late the night before partying and did not see the messages right away, Elliott said.
When Martinez finally woke up around noon, he tells Black he'll be right over. Martinez, Iseminger and Ramirez at the time were staying at the Stanton home of a friend, Thomas Waire, Elliott said.
Aguilar's cousin, who was trying to help get the victim to sober up, dropped him off at Black's room to gather some belongings before the relative later took him to a rehab facility, Elliott said.
Martinez, Iseminger and Ramirez got to the motel about 1:11 p.m. and Martinez went in, Elliott said. Ramirez and Iseminger went in and out for the first few minutes, but then left the three alone in the room, where a gunshot can be heard, Elliott said.
Martinez, Iseminger and Ramirez then fled the scene while Black's dog dashed out of the room, Elliott said. Black, meanwhile, tried to call back the dog, then turned her attention to gathering some belongings to put in a bag that she handed to someone to throw out before police arrived, Elliott said.
All the while Black can be seen on surveillance video stepping over her estranged lover's body, Elliott said.
Black told police Martinez jumped on the bed, pointed the gun at the victim and killed him, Elliott said. The victim was shot once, Elliott said.
Black's friend Joshua Michael Petro, 34, was in jail when he saw the news about Aguilar's killing, so when he got out a short time later, he raced over to Black to find out what happened, Elliott said. Jurors will hear Petro's testimony from a preliminary hearing as he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in July and was sentenced to 11 years in prison in an unrelated case in which he ran over a man who had flattened the tire of his car in an Anaheim convenience store parking lot.
Petro said the two had a tumultuous relationship with Aguilar verbally and physically abusing Black, but that she would return the abuse, Elliott said.
"Amy did kill the victim," Elliott said. "But she did not pull the trigger. ... It was absolutely the defendant who pulled the trigger."
Martinez's attorney, Edwin Beckett of the Alternate Defender's Office, said Black had been staying at the motel for about two and a half years. Beckett said Black told Petro, "I smoked him," which Petro took to mean Black fatally shot the victim, prompting Petro to call police, Beckett said. Black also allegedly told her friend, "I'd dig him up and do it again," Beckett said.
"Who has the motive to kill Carlos Aguilar?" Beckett said. "Who keeps saying she wants him dead?"
The drug-addicted Petro was not inclined to go to the police "unless it's serious," Beckett said.
Petro said Aguilar would sometimes beat Black with a baton and leave marks on her, Beckett said.
"Maybe in the end she gave more than what she got," Beckett said of the tempestuous relationship.
Martinez was not motivated to kill Aguilar, Beckett said.
"Amy seemed to be doing pretty well with drug sales," Beckett said. "One way to end your drug sale operation out of that room is to have a dead body in there."
Beckett said Black put the murder weapon in a black bag to be disposed of. He showed a photo of the drugs seized from the room to note Black was not trying to get rid of the narcotics there after the shooting.
"She's getting rid of evidence, but not the drugs," he said.
Several days before the murder, a heroin addict showed up at Black's room suffering from withdrawal in the hopes he could get enough of a fix to treat his symptoms, Beckett said. Black threatened him with a gun and told him not to return looking for free drugs, the defense attorney said.