Witnesses Describe Mob Scene at Shooting Outside Sushi Club

An hour after his car window was smashed on Seaward Avenue in Ventura, Jose Martinez went to a sushi restaurant to find the vandals, his stepfather testified Wednesday.

His search allegedly ended in the shooting death of a 23-year-old Ventura carpenter.

Prosecutors in Martinez’s preliminary hearing have presented evidence that the slaying occurred after a heated argument outside the seaside restaurant. But defense testimony suggested that Martinez may have been trying to protect himself.

Threatening patrons of Juro’ Cho’ Sushi surrounded Martinez, who fired a warning shot in the air before shooting at somebody in the crowd, said his stepfather, Arthur Charette. Martinez, 19, faces murder charges in the Dec. 15 shooting of Steven Dale Jenkins. He is also charged with a special allegation that he used a firearm.

Jenkins, who hoped to become a dentist, died the next morning from a gunshot wound to the head.

A Ventura detective testified that the confrontation began after Martinez had been driving down Seaward Avenue with his radio blaring. A group of patrons upset by what they saw as his reckless driving confronted him and one threw something at a back window, breaking it. Martinez said he was going to come back with a gun, Det. Russell Robinson said.

Martinez returned twice. The first time, he pointed a gun at one of the customers outside the restaurant and said he wanted payment for his broken window, a witness testified. Then he took off, running up Seaward Avenue.

Charette said his stepson showed up at the Shores Motel, where he and Martinez’s mother were renting a room. Martinez was agitated and told them a group had jumped him and smashed his car window. Charette recalled that Martinez was scared.

Charette suggested they call the police, but Martinez refused and then left. Prosecutors believe he went to buy bullets for his 9-millimeter gun. When he returned to the motel, Martinez convinced his sister’s husband and Charette to accompany him to the restaurant. Martinez brought the gun and a baseball bat, witnesses testified.

Charette told police that Martinez said, “They’re gonna have to pay for my window or I’m gonna mess somebody up.”

Inside the bar, several people shouted accusations and threatened to kill Martinez, Charette said. They followed him outside and started throwing punches. After Martinez fired into the air, Charette said, the crowd “came on even stronger.”

“He was being provoked by a mob,” Charette said. “They were trying to overtake him.”

Martinez tried to punch somebody and then shot again, Charette said. When Jenkins fell to the ground, Martinez yelled that he was sorry and that he didn’t mean to shoot anyone. When the crowd didn’t back away, the teen ran. Charette said he and his son-in-law followed, chased by more than a dozen patrons.

Martinez’s mother, Beth Charette, testified that about 15 people ran toward the motel, and one pointed a gun at them.

“There were so many running from all different directions,” she said. “It was a mob of people, threatening, screaming, carrying weapons.”

When the police arrived, the crowd “scattered like ants,” she said.

Martinez and his parents had moved from Nevada to Ventura just weeks before the shooting, his mother testified. Martinez was working the graveyard shift at Target and alternately staying at his parents’ motel room and his sister’s place.