Oct. 4 – In coming weeks, a jury is expected to hear an attempted murder case against a Sandia Park man in a shooting that rocked Española amid protests over the resurrection of a controversial Spanish conquistador statue more than a years ago.
The outcome of the case could resonate across the country and set a model for prosecutions against what many see as escalating incidents of political violence.
The defendant, Ryan Martinez, 24, faces attempted murder and other crimes in a trial set to begin Tuesday at a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, the remote county seat of Rio Arriba County.
Martinez wore a red “Make America Great Again” cap on September 28, 2023, when he disrupted a protest by several Native American groups against the reinstallation of a statue of Juan de Oñate outside a provincial building in Española. Videos of the incident that circulated on social media in the days that followed showed Martinez attacking protesters — some of whom blocked his access to an area outside the building where the pedestal for the future statue stood — before firing a gun from his waistband pulled. and fired a single shot into the crowd.
Jacob Johns of Spokane, Washington, a Native American artist and environmental activist, suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Martinez is charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving.
Prosecutors allege Martinez pointed the gun at another protester before shooting Johns and then driving away in a white Tesla. He was arrested by police on the highway south of Española and has been held at the Rio Arriba County Jail in Tierra Amarilla since the incident.
Martinez faces more than 24 years in prison if convicted on the charges.
Albuquerque-based attorneys Nicole Moss and Marshall Ray are representing Martinez in the case. The two are expected to make a self-defense argument for Martinez after admitting in previous interviews that their client fired a shot at the protest and struck Johns.
Moss and Ray have argued in court papers that Martinez “feared for his life” in the incident, calling Johns an “out-of-state agitator.”
Their defense appears to include a retired police officer who will testify as an expert witness in self-defense. Prosecutors objected to the use of former police Sgt. Damon Fay, who argues in a motion, “The problem with his testimony is that his training and experience is entirely related to law enforcement,” while Martinez is a civilian.
District Judge Jason Lidyard recently ruled that Fay could testify, along with many who were present during the shooting and will testify on behalf of the state. Prosecutors’ list of potential witnesses for the trial includes Johns, several other protesters, Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia and Albuquerque Journal photographer Eddie Moore. Among those on the attorneys’ witness list are Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield, as well as several men listed on Española’s post office boxes.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis and Chief Deputy District Attorney Tony Long are prosecuting the case and are expected to argue the case in court.
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys declined to comment on the case ahead of the trial.
Jury selection begins Monday, with the trial running from Tuesday through Friday and then from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18.
Johns has spoken out since the shooting, both on national channels such as the Democracy Now broadcast program and in Santa Fe. Johns and others call the incident an example of “colonial violence” that indigenous people have faced for centuries.
The Native American artist held an exhibition in Santa Fe this summer that included paintings of several photos from the shooting and renderings of Martinez. One of Johns’ paintings showed Martinez in tears, an image from the suspected shooter’s pretrial hearing late last year.
“What happened to me was horrible, traumatic — the worst thing I’ve ever experienced,” Johns told The New Mexican in July. “The people who witnessed what happened were truly distraught. The idea is to find healing not only for myself, but for the community as well.”
A lawsuit against Martinez and his parents in connection with the incident was settled earlier this year.
Johns alleged in the civil complaint that Martinez was “motivated by hatred, prejudice and prejudice against indigenous people” and that the suspect’s parents knew he was “obsessed with guns and firearms and that he routinely exhibited dangerous and exceptionally disturbing behavior while he lived with them. .”
Santa Fe attorney John Day — who represented Johns in the lawsuit — confirmed in a phone call Friday that the case had been settled, but he declined to comment further on the settlement.
Since the protests against the statue and subsequent shooting over a year ago, the Oñate statue, which is owned by the province, has been stored in an undisclosed location.
The incident led to an effort to recall Rio Arriba County Commissioner Alex Naranjo, who has been blamed by some community members and officials for an ill-conceived initiative to remove the highly controversial statue, which was partially removed from its previous location in 2020 removed, to bring it back to life. for fear of violence during protests.
Antonio “Ike” DeVargas, who spearheaded the recall and was present at the 2023 protest, died in recent months.
