PORT HUENEME : Defendant, 16, Denies Firing Fatal Shot

A 16-year-old Port Hueneme boy on trial for murder in Ventura County Superior Court told a jury Thursday that an older man intimidated him into participating in the crime.

Gilbert Martinez, who is being tried as an adult in the December slaying of a Santa Barbara landlord killed while collecting rent, testified that another defendant in the case did the actual shooting.

Martinez did admit that he had a .45-caliber handgun when he and three others tried to steal Richard Schell’s rent receipts, but he told the jury that he froze during the robbery attempt and that Jose Arreguin, 20, of Oxnard grabbed the gun from his hand and fired the fatal shot.

Arreguin then gave the gun back to Martinez and ordered him to take responsibility for the shooting, Martinez said.

Arreguin was convicted of first-degree murder earlier this month in a separate trial.

“I was scared, afraid,” Martinez told the jury.

Two other Oxnard men also have been charged in the crime. George Pena, 23, is scheduled to stand trial next month, while David Lee Soto, 20, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and will be sentenced after completing his testimony against the other three defendants.

Defense attorney James M. Farley has portrayed Martinez as a young man led astray by the older men.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn maintains that Martinez is the one who pulled the trigger when Schell started his car to get away. Schell died from a single gunshot that pierced his heart during the Dec. 1 attack in Port Hueneme.

The trial is expected to conclude next week.