Óscar A. Contreras is a Murrow-nominated journalist who has been writing for the E.W. Scripps Company since January 2014.
DENVER — A Denver man who has been serving a life sentence for the past 26 years after he was convicted of killing a 4-month-old baby in 1998 had his conviction erased Tuesday after new evidence presented by the defense concluded the infant died of pneumonia and not from being violently shaken. Stephen Martinez , 58, was sentenced in 2000 to life in prison after prosecutors made the case that 4-month-old Heather Mares died after she was violently shaken by Martinez to stop the child from crying.
Speaking before a judge Tuesday, a family member of the victim said Martinez inflicted a “complex skull fracture” that led to Heather’s death.Reporting from our partners at The Denver Post states that further investigation into Heather’s death showed that the baby had ruptured blood vessels in her eyes, brain bleeding and swelling. Martinez would later confess to shaking Heather and slamming her into a crib — a confession he later recanted and which his attorneys say was false.
But doctors who recently reviewed Heather’s case found her lungs were severely damaged to the point that “she had almost no air,” according to a petition from the defense reviewed by the Post. Those findings could have caused the symptoms that were previously attributed to abuse, the experts told the defense.
“I understand that today is a difficult day and that decisions made in this courtroom are decisions you’ll have to carry with you the rest of your life,” Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen told family members in court Tuesday. “This is not an easy decision,” he reiterated, as he extended his sympathies for the family. Luxen said the court was guided by Rule 35, a criminal procedure that allows a person convicted of a crime to challenge their conviction if they can show their sentence was fundamentally flawed. The judge said Martinez exercised his rights under Rule 35 “a number of times” but those prior motions were denied.
The judge went on to say that new evidence discovered in the case “would have likely change the result” of Martinez’s trial in early 2000, before ordering that his conviction be vacated.Tuesday’s development in Martinez’s case follows years of extensive investigation and advocacy led by the Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado Boulder Law School, according to his defense attorneys. The project provides free legal services to people serving time in Colorado prisons for crimes they didn’t commit.
'Speaking before the court Tuesday, several of Heather’s relatives took to the podium to plead with the judge to not vacate Martinez’s conviction. Andre Mares, one of Heather’s relatives, told Judge Luxen that releasing Martinez “sends a dangerous message that violence against the most vulnerable can eventually be forgiven.”Kim Estrada, Heather’s mother, said her life was stopped 27 years ago when she lost Heather and that Martinez has “shown no remorse... about taking our daughter.”
“I beg you, don’t let him out, we don’t deserve that, I don’t deserve it as a mother,” Estrada said. 'Don’t let this animal out on the street — he doesn’t deserve it, and neither do we.'Martinez is the latest in a number of convictions that have been overturned over the past 30 years due to evolving scientific understanding on Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Per the National Registry of Exonerations, at least 41 parents and caregivers in 18 states convicted based on evidence of SBS, also commonly known as Abusive Head Trauma, has been exonerated since 1989.Last year, New Jersey became the first state in the U.S. to bar expert testimony on SBS/AHT from the courtroom when there is no other evidence of trauma.
Man Sentenced To Prison 26 Years Ago In Infant’S D Stephen Martinez Stephen Martinez Heather Mares Stephen Martinez Heather Mares Conviction Stephen Martinez Heather Mares Conviction First-De Stephen Martinez Conviction Vacated Stephen Martinez Conviction Vacated After 26 Years Stephen Martinez Conviction Vacated After Serving Stephen Martinez Conviction Vacated After Serving
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