Crime Partner Guilty of First-Degree Murder

David E. Hayes, who once thought he had an arrangement with prosecutors to plead guilty to second-degree murder, was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury Tuesday in the strangulation death of a Santa Ana man.

Hayes, whose crime partner was one of two men who made a dramatic escape from Orange County Jail two years ago, was so upset at the jury verdict that he began changing out of his suit back into his Orange County Jail clothes as he was escorted out of the courtroom.

“I would say he is distraught,” said his attorney, Larry W. Bruce. “He knows he’s looking a long way up from the bottom of the tank.”

Hayes, 26, and Robert W. Clark, 25, were charged with the Jan. 1, 1984, murder of David L. Martinez during a robbery in the man’s car. Clark, who was later convicted and sentenced to life without parole, was accused of the killing. But Hayes was prosecuted under the felony murder rule, which states that a crime partner in a robbery is equally responsible if the crime results in someone’s death.

Dramatic Jail Escape

While awaiting trial, Clark and a convicted killer awaiting sentencing, Ivon Von Staich, escaped from County Jail on Jan. 26, 1986, by overtaking a jail deputy on the roof and using bed sheets and wiring to climb down the side of the jail. Clark was caught at a Tustin motel less than a week later, Staich a month after that.

Hayes’ attorney, Bruce, says he had made arrangements for his client to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the Martinez killing in exchange for his testimony at Clark’s trial.

But the district attorney’s office changed prosecutors, and the new deputy in charge, Jeoffrey L. Robinson, claimed that no such agreement existed. He insisted on going after Hayes for first-degree murder. A conviction of first-degree murder carries a penalty of 25 years to life in prison; a second-degree murder conviction is only 15 years to life.

Hayes told The Times, when calling from the jail last November to complain about press coverage of his case, that “I never meant for anybody to get killed. We just wanted to roll the guy.”

Said He Was Gay

That was essentially what Hayes told police. But at his trial, Hayes had a different version of events. He claimed that Clark killed Martinez because he had caught Hayes and the victim sleeping together. Court evidence showed that Martinez was gay, and Hayes told the jurors that he too was gay.

“It wasn’t something he wanted to do, we had to get it out of him after we began to suspect something was wrong with that whole robbery story,” Bruce said.

But jurors said later that they did not believe Hayes.

The victim’s mother, Virginia Martinez, broke down and cried at the jury verdict, then hugged prosecutor Robinson as he left the courtroom.

Her husband, Joseph C. Martinez, said later: “The verdict was not what was important to us. What really mattered to us was whether the (prosecution) would make a good effort to represent our son. Mr. Robinson did a great job. That’s why we are so thankful.”

Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride set May 6 for sentencing.