The Willow Glen Resident Key suspect was absent during the Oscar Perez preliminary hearing Witness says that Martin Martinez wielded the knife By Cecily Barnes Gregorio Perez Martinez, 19, and Saul Hernandez Martinez, 21--two unrelated suspects who have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Oscar Perez in December--sat shackled in Municipal Courtroom 49 last week, during preliminary hearings to determine if the case will go to a jury trial. The hearings will probably prove to be little more than a formality--district attorney Scott Tsui predicts they will end by next week, and that Judge Nazario "Tito" Gonzales will recommend a jury trial; Bernard Bray, the defense attorney for Saul Martinez, suspects the same. A third suspect--Martin Martinez, Saul Martinez's brother--is still at large. Lucilla Partida, a witness for the prosecution, said during the hearing that Martin Martinez wielded the weapon that killed Perez. According to her Jan. 5 testimony, Partida was seated in a vehicle when five suspects attacked and killed Perez. She recounted that only Martin Martinez used a knife on Perez, while the others kicked and punched him. Bray is expected to argue that the knife wounds were what killed Perez. In an interview following the hearing, Bray pointed out that his client was not involved in the stabbing. "Did [Saul Martinez] have anything to do with those acts? Absolutely not. Was he personally responsible for inflicting any [knife] wounds? No. The most interesting aspect of this case, is that the person thought to be responsible for this crime is not before the court," Bray said. The hearings are designed to determine if there is a "reasonable probability" that the defendants might be responsible for the crime. In an interview, Bray said, "It is reasonably foreseeable that Judge Gonzales will make that determination based on what we've seen to date." He pointed out, however, that guilt or innocence is not the point. "The standard here is a reasonable probability, and the proof at a jury hearing is beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. Despite his expectation that the case will go to trial, Bray argues that his client is not guilty of murder, and that any jury will agree. Without responding specifically to Bray's defense, district attorney Tsui says he's confident that the matter will go to trial, and that the jury will find the suspects guilty of murder. "I'm comfortable with the evidence coming in right now," Tsui said. "So far, I think things are going well." Tsui says he will call between 10 and 13 witnesses before the end of the preliminary hearing. The three witnesses who have already testified--Partida as well as Esperanza Sandoval and Rosemary Camarino, who were walking down the street at the time of the attack--are the only people who witnessed the killing. Other witnesses this week will include the coroner and experts with technical and scientific evidence. Since the beginning of the preliminary hearing, the victim's mother, Adela Perez, has sat quietly in the audience. During Partida's account of the attack, Perez buried her face in her hands. Partida testified that while he was being attacked, Perez called out "help me." The murder occurred on June 13, when Perez and his girlfriend were walking on Willow Street at 5:40 p.m. A group of Hispanic youths in their late teens and early 20s drove by, stopped their car and chased Perez to Willow Street and Settle Avenue. There they kicked, punched and stabbed him to death. Besides Saul Martinez, Gregorio Martinez and Martin Martinez, two juvenile females, listed in court records as "Patricia" and "Marianna," have also been arrested. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.