Youth Found Innocent of Murder But Guilty of Attempted Robbery

A 16-year-old Port Hueneme boy who admitted his involvement in an attempted robbery that claimed the life of a Santa Barbara landlord was acquitted of murder Monday by a Ventura County Superior Court jury.

Gilbert Martinez, who testified that he was intimidated by others into participating in the crime last December, was found guilty of attempted robbery with the special allegation that he used a firearm.

But jurors refused to find that Martinez had planned the murder.

“We felt he was a little scared and kind of coerced by the other three defendants,” said Evelyn Galan, a juror from Thousand Oaks. “We spent a great deal of time talking about that.”

Martinez could have faced life in prison if convicted of murdering Richard Schell, 55, a landlord from Santa Barbara. Schell was shot in his pickup truck after collecting rent from tenants of an apartment building he owns on B Street in Port Hueneme.

Martinez was ordered in February to be tried as an adult. He and three others were accused of stalking Schell to steal thousands of dollars in rent he was counting. The four suspects fled without the money after someone shot Schell, who had started his truck in an attempt to get away.

Prosecutors alleged that Martinez fired the fatal shot, but jurors were skeptical.

“I couldn’t find a mental state or intent to kill,” said juror Alison Tanner of Camarillo. “There was too much gray area.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn, who won a first-degree murder conviction against co-defendant Jose Arreguin earlier this month, called the Martinez jury verdict “totally irresponsible.”

“They’re letting a young 16-year-old murderer get out of prison after he serves time on the robbery,” Glynn said. “If they found him guilty of attempted robbery, I don’t see how they could not find the murder.”

Glynn said the jurors were confused about the law that calls for a defendant to be found guilty of murder if someone dies during a robbery attempt. Arreguin was convicted largely on those findings.

“I frankly think in talking to them that even if they had gotten over the mental state (issue), there were about five of them who would not convict him because of his age,” Glynn said.

Defense attorney James M. Farley, who hugged his client as the not-guilty finding was read aloud, said he was surprised by the decision. “I expected him to be found guilty (of murder),” Farley said.

Farley said the other three defendants--Arreguin, 20; George Pena, 23, who will stand trial in August; and David Lee Soto, 20, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and has testified against the others--set up his client because he is a juvenile.

“They figured ‘Let’s get some young kid to carry the gun and that way he can’t get into a lot of trouble,’ ” Farley said. “All three of these guys turned on (Martinez). They all pointed the finger at him.”

Martinez testified that he held the gun but became scared during the robbery and that Arreguin took the weapon from him and shot Schell. Soto testified that he did not see who fired the single shot that pierced Schell’s heart, Glynn said.

Jurors said the boy’s age played a significant role in their deliberations, which stretched over four days, and that some of them could not help feeling sympathetic toward Martinez.

“It was like a set-up,” Galan said. “They were going to use him as a scapegoat.”

Martinez could receive up to four years in the California Youth Authority when he is sentenced by Judge Charles R. McGrath on Aug. 3 for the attempted robbery conviction, Farley said.