Murder trial hears from suspect
Defendant says he was cleaning rifle before wife was fatally wounded
In a rare move, a San Antonio man accused of killing his common-law wife in 2016 testified in his own defense Tuesday, telling jurors she had given him a rifle as a surprise gift a month earlier and he was cleaning it in their bedroom moments before they both were shot.
Gabriel Martinez, 37, was the defense's second witness after the state rested its case in his murder trial.
He’s accused of killing Lori Lee Ortiz, 35, who was shot three times with an AK rifle with a pistol grip May 18, 2016, and later died at University Hospital. Martinez was wounded in the abdomen. Police charge he killed her, then turned the rifle on himself in a failed attempt to commit suicide.
Ortiz and Martinez had three children together during an onand-off relationship that spanned about 19 years. The two met while attending Kennedy High School.
Prosecutors Ryan White and Jennifer Brown argued during the state's case that he killed Ortiz because she was dating Tony Guzman, a man she had met while in radiology school.
In his opening statement Tuesday, defense attorney Miguel Najera paraphrased fictional private detective Sherlock Holmes and urged the jury not to jump to conclusions.
“It’s dangerous to have already decided what happened,” he told the panel. “There were only two individuals there that
know what happened that day,” and stated his client would tell his story, and a private investigator would present evidence of a bullet found at the scene two years later that would shed light on their relationship.
But it was the testimony of both men — first Guzman, then Martinez — that captivated the gallery in the 379th state District Court.
Testifying for the state, Guzman told the jury he met Ortiz in May 2014 when they started school together, and they began to date in December 2015. He said he attended family functions with her and that she took him to her uncle’s house around Christmas, where he met her children. Guzman said he knew about Martinez, but said Ortiz referred to Martinez as a “roommate.”
“To me, he (Martinez) was just her baby daddy,” Guzman said.
Martinez knew of their relationship because he sent angry text messages and left voicemails for Guzman from Ortiz’s phone, Guzman said.
White played a profanity laced message in court that Guzman said was Martinez, in which he told Guzman to stay away from Ortiz and their family, sometime after Christmas 2015.
“Let’s (expletive) get this (expletive) over with (expletive) so I can (expletive) know who the (expletive) you are, (expletive), where the (expletive) you’re at, (expletive) so I can (expletive) your (expletive, expletive),” jurors heard in court.
Text messages sent from Ortiz’s phone to Guzman the day before the killing also were shown to the jury.
“Stay the (expletive) away from my children. We have kids, I already know she called you. Next, I’ll be looking for you.”
In a subdued voice, Guzman testified that the night Ortiz was shot, he received a call from her phone and heard Ortiz’s voice asking someone why they was calling Guzman. When the phone rang subsequent times, Guzman said he didn’t pick up.
But when he checked his voicemail and heard Martinez yelling, “I told her, I (expletive) told her. I told you!” he called 911 and headed toward the house.
As he approached, he saw two ambulances coming from the area of the home and followed them to University Hospital.
After Guzman’s testimony, the state rested.
When he took the stand in his defense, an emotional Martinez went into great detail about his relationship with Ortiz, which he said was on and off throughout the years they had been together since high school.
He told the court he had a shotgun for a time in the house before he and Ortiz argued one night and she fired near him to frighten him. He said he got rid of the shotgun, but that Ortiz later bought an AK rifle for him because the couple had spoken about buying land, and they wanted to shoot the weapon out there.
Martinez also testified that he and his wife had argued the night before the shooting.
“I got the rifle and pointed it at her,” he told the jury. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I wanted (her) to see how she felt having it pointed at her,” since she had fired the shotgun at him.
Martinez began talking about the night of the shooting, but was stopped by Judge Ron Rangel around 5:15 p.m. because the transport to the jail was about to leave.
Martinez’s testimony will resume today.
If convicted of murder, Martinez faces up to life in prison.