Trial begins in fatal shooting in Downtown ABQ

An Albuquerque police officer told jurors Tuesday, on the first day of Jonathan Gabriel Martinez’s murder trial, that he was driving on Central Avenue when a bullet struck the windshield of his patrol car.

Sgt. Garrett Maxson said he saw blood on his arms and thought he had been shot.

“I didn’t know where I was bleeding,” Maxson said, his voice cracking with emotion. “I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to die.”

A barrage of gunfire from an AK-47 rifle at Fourth and Central on July 10, 2021, killed Trevonte Robbins and seriously injured a second man in a shooting that prosecutors describe as a case of mistaken identity.

Glass and bullet fragments also struck Maxson, who was transported to a hospital and treated for injuries to his left arm. The officer told jurors that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the shooting.

“I’m very lucky to be here,” he said.

Martinez, 23, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated assault. His trial in 2nd Judicial District Court is scheduled through Friday before state District Judge Bruce Fox.

Prosecutors allege that Martinez and a co-defendant, Asad Ahmed Moody, were looking for a man who had beaten Moody a week earlier.

The pair misidentified one of Robbins’ companions as the man they were seeking and fired at the group as they were walking on Central, prosecutor David Waymire told jurors.

Moody, 22, pleaded guilty in May 2023 to one count of second-degree murder and other charges and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Robbins “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Waymire said in opening statements.

Martinez was driving a getaway car when Moody exited the vehicle and fired eight shots from an AK-47 on Fourth, just east of Amy Biehl Charter High School.

Robbins was fatally shot in the face. His companion, Kevin Johnson, testified Tuesday that a single gunshot passed through his abdomen and lodged in his left arm.

Jurors will view security video from the school that shows the shooting in a bustling Downtown neighborhood, Waymire said.

“Frankly, it’s a wonder that more people weren’t hit,” Waymire told jurors. “The evidence will show that Jonathan Martinez intended for this to happen; he helped make it happen. He allowed it to happen by being the driver.”

Martinez’s attorney, Stephanie Gulley, said in opening statements Tuesday that prosecutors are asking jurors to make “circumstantial leaps” based on videos and cellphone records to reach false conclusions.

Martinez was not driving the car involved in Robbins’ killing, she told jurors.

“I would submit to you that there is no evidence that my client was driving this vehicle,” Gulley said. “Mr. Waymire calls it Jonathan Martinez’s vehicle. He doesn’t have any proof of that.”

Waymire alleged that the fatal series of events began on July 3, 2021 — a week before the killing — when Martinez’s co-defendant, Asad Moody, was beaten by a man in Downtown Albuquerque.

“Asad Moody is Downtown,” Waymire told jurors. “He gets in a fight, he gets beat up, and he’s mad and he wants revenge for that fight.”

On the night of the killing, Moody and Martinez misidentified one of Robbins’ companions as the man who beat Moody a week earlier, Waymire said.

Waymire told jurors that prosecutors will use video recordings, Snapchat and Facebook messages, and cellphone records to show Martinez’s involvement in Robbins’ killing.

A third man who was allegedly involved in the incident, Isney Lafirme Pau, 24, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation.

Charges were dismissed in August 2022 against a fourth co-defendant, Darryus Chavez, 25, because evidence linking him to the incident was security video that lacked sufficient clarity to identify him, court records show.