Gang defense assailed in slaying of officer
Defendant says he tried to leave club, thought he shot fellow Mongol breaking into home
A San Gabriel man who claimed he wanted to leave the Mongols motorcycle club and believed it was fellow members breaking into his parents’ home when he fatally shot an officer did not quit the group, continued to participate in group events and still talked or texted with Mongols members, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.
The prosecution sought to undermine the defense argument that David Martinez, 44, fired a 12-gauge shotgun in self-defense to protect his family during the 2014 shooting. Martinez testified Tuesday and Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that he thought it was other Mongols members at the door and didn’t know it was members of the Pomona SWAT team outside serving a search warrant.
One of the officers, Shaun Diamond, was shot in the back of the neck in the earlymorning hours of Oct. 28, 2014. Diamond died the next day at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena.
A multiagency operation targeting the Mongols motorcycle club served several search warrants on the day Diamond was shot. Pomona’s SWAT team wasn’t part of the task force but was asked to serve the warrant at the home of Martinez’s parents in the 100 block of San Marino Avenue in San Gabriel.
Martinez is being tried a second time on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Diamond. He also was charged with assault with a firearm upon a peace officer.
His first trial in 2019 ended in a hung jury. The jury acquitted Martinez of first-degree murder but deadlocked on second-degree murder.
Deputy District Attorney Jack Garden asked
Martinez what he did to leave the Mongols after a motorcycle accident in April 2013. He asked, what did he do in May 2013? Martinez had earlier testified that the accident was one of the factors that made him think about being with the group.
Martinez said he stopped paying his dues and stopped going to meetings. He told one member he wanted out but didn’t express this to higher-ups, according to Martinez.
Garden said Martinez could have quit the Mongols and that the group’s constitution allows for that.
“I don’t remember seeing it there,” Martinez said.
Garden used a projector to show a copy of the Mongols’ constitution that pertains to quitting.
He also asked Martinez if the tattoo of a head of Genghis Khan on his chest was his only Mongols tattoo. Martinez said it was. However, Garden said the San Gabriel man also has a tattoo of “MFFM” on an arm, which he said stands for “Mongols Forever, Forever Mongols.”
After the lunch break, Martinez was told to remove his long-sleeved shirt and necktie to show the jury the tattoo of “MFFM” on his arm.
“You told the jury you don’t have (another) Mongols tattoo. That’s a lie, right?” Garden said.
The judge told the prosecutor that was argumentative.
Two days before the shooting, Martinez said he attended a Mongols event where he took methamphetamine three times in a restroom. He put some meth on a business card, which he put in the little pocket of his Levi’s jeans.
“You chose not to decline it,” Garden said. “And you took it with you to get high again in the future.”
Police would find the drug in a small room at the Martinez home, which they referred to as an office.
From the same Mongols event, Garden said Martinez brought home a stolen handgun and showed the gun to the jury. Martinez got the gun from another Mongols member.
Martinez said it was left in his trunk.
But Garden said Martinez actually got the gun when he was following the pack to an event and read Martinez’s testimony during his first trial in 2019.
Martinez said the gun came from another Mongols member who wasn’t wearing a Mongols vest. He said he didn’t know the man’s name.
Garden pointed out that Martinez was asked at the first trial whom he was holding the gun for and Martinez testified, “I’m not going to tell you.”
The prosecution plans to continue cross-examining Martinez today.