A Burbank man was convicted Thursday of shooting and seriously injuring two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and trying to kill four other deputies in Bellflower nearly two years ago.
A Norwalk jury deliberated just over two hours before finding Juan Manuel Martinez, 41, guilty of five counts each of attempted murder of a peace officer and assault with a firearm upon a peace officer and one count each of attempted murder involving an undercover deputy, false imprisonment of a hostage, dissuading a witness by force or threat and felon in possession of a firearm, according to Deputy District Attorney Garrett Dameron.
Martinez shot one sheriff’s deputy who was in the process of pulling him over in the 16600 block of Lisa Avenue, near a DUI checkpoint on Lakewood Boulevard on June 23, 2016, authorities said.
He fled from the scene on foot, shot an undercover sheriff’s deputy and then fired at four other deputies before hiding for about seven hours in a small structure, in which a man was held hostage for five hours, according to the prosecutor. The man was able to escape unharmed.
Martinez — who was not struck by the deputies’ return gunfire before the barricade — was arrested after a SWAT team fired tear gas into the structure behind a house in the 9000 block of Mayne Street in Bellflower.
He has remained jailed since then and is facing at least 200 years to life in state prison, with sentencing set July 30 before Judge Roger Ito, according to the prosecutor.