FAYETTEVILLE -- A jury considering the fate of a Springdale man charged with capital murder in a gang shooting is set to resume deliberation this morning in Washington County Circuit Court.
Rodolfo Alberto Martinez, 21, is charged with capital murder, unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle and committing a terroristic act in the drive-by slaying April 11, 2015, of Jimmy Rodriguez, 20. Martinez faces life in prison if convicted.
Legal lingo
A lesser included offense is a crime that is proved by the same facts as a more serious crime. For example, a prosecutor may charge a person with capital murder and if he fails to prove all the elements needed to convict, the defendant may still be convicted of a lesser included offense of first-degree murder or second-degree murder.
Source: Staff report
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated about an hour and a half Tuesday before Judge Mark Lindsay sent them home for the evening. Deliberation resumes at 8:30 a.m.
Durrett told jurors in his closing argument the shooting was gang-related retribution.
Eric Rodriguez, a cousin of Jimmy Rodriguez, testified Monday he and friends and relatives were at his parents' house at 609 Savage St. They were standing in the front yard when an unfamiliar car full of young men drove by, came back a few minutes later and gun shots rang out.
"What makes sense is they went over there because they were looking to retaliate against Pascual Carbajal. They went over there to take out Pascual Carbajal," said Matt Durrett, prosecutor. "They went over there with the purpose to kill somebody, they went over there with the purpose to get back, to get revenge for something that happened -- something that they were offended by, something they didn't like."
Durrett said there may have been an fight earlier or allegations Carbajal vandalized an apartment, depending on which story you believe.
"They showed up and he wasn't there, so this defendant just decided to take out whoever was there. Jimmy Rodriguez was the one that ended up dead," Durrett said. "To me, that indicates that this defendant didn't care who he shot, he didn't care who he killed. He was gonna shoot somebody, he was gonna take somebody's life and unfortunately for Jimmy Rodriguez that day the life that this defendant chose to take was his."
The defense tried to bolster its case by putting Jose Delatorre, a co-defendant, on the stand in an unexpected twist. Delatorre, who was in the drive-by car, made what appeared to be a feeble attempt to claim sole responsibility for the shooting. Delatorre said he borrowed a car and a gun from people he couldn't or wouldn't identify, drove to Savage Street by himself and shot Rodriguez.
Delatorre's story didn't square with any of the evidence or testimony presented in the case with the exception of Jimmy Rodriguez ending up dead.
"That story that Jose Delatorre told makes no sense. It makes no sense because it's not true," Durrett said. "It's 100 percent, absolutely false."
Delatorre told Detective Freddie Villeda just days after the shooting he was in the back seat of the car, Giovanni Vasquez-Sanchez drove and Martinez was the front seat passenger.
Villeda told jurors Tuesday that Delatorre told him the three were looking to target another gang member who wasn't at the house and Rodriguez wasn't the intended victim.
Eric Rodriguez said Monday he didn't recognize the car, but he knew the driver Vasquez-Sanchez, and it was he who asked, "What do you gang bang?"
Rodriguez said he didn't answer.
"I'm just staring, then a gun comes out and they started firing," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he dove behind a car and when the shooting stopped he came out to find Jimmy Rodriguez lying on the ground holding his chest.
Rodriguez identified Martinez in court on Monday as the man he saw shoot at them from the car.
Viviana Romero said Monday that Martinez, Vasquez-Sanchez and Delatorre and another person came to her home and asked her and her brother to hide a gun for them. They buried the .22-caliber pistol in the backyard where it was later found by police.
"He said he had shot Jimmy," Romero said Martinez told her.
Omar Cervantes testified Monday he picked the group up at Romero's house on Water Street because he invited Martinez to go to a car show.
"I was driving and that's when he told me he'd shot Jimmy," Cervantes said. "As soon as they told me that, I wanted to get rid of them."
Most of Tuesday's testimony involved expert witnesses from the Arkansas State Crime Lab.
Dr. Stephen Erickson, who did the autopsy, said one bullet hit Rodriguez in the left chest and passed through a lung, three chambers of the heart and the liver before coming to rest in the right side of his chest.
"This is a fatal gunshot wound," Erickson said. "If it happened outside the emergency room, it's still a fatal wound."
Rebecca Mullen, a firearms expert, said she was unable to match bullets recovered to the gun police found and submitted for testing, but shell casings found at the scene and with the gun matched.
NW News on 08/16/2017