Reputed Orange County Mexican Mafia boss Johnny Martinez will ask a federal judge in Santa Ana Tuesday to let him represent himself as his own attorney in a sprawling racketeering case against the defendant and the gang which has resulted most notably murder convictions for three men.
Martinez filed his request July 9, handwriting the 10-page motion. U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter will hear the defendant’s argument.
“With all due respect, Mr. Martinez is being persecuted by the prosecution for who he is — not what he stands accused of,” Martinez wrote. “This federal indictment represents prosecutorial vindictiveness in its purest form by an overzealous and disgruntled prosecution team that Mr. Martinez won fair and square in the OC state court system.
“Indeed, this is now the THIRD time that Mr. Martinez is being prosecuted for offenses that were either ruled to be without probable cause, or unchargeable because Mr. Martinez’s alleged conduct cannot be prosecuted in state court. This is an obvious case of state court losers weaponizing the federal judiciary in an attempt to take a third bite at the apple.”
In December, Martinez got his second-degree murder conviction tossed by Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson based on a new state law that redefined murder.
Martinez and his attorneys were also successful in junking another state murder case against him in state court when Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue ruled a lack of evidence to prosecute him.
Martinez was charged in a case accusing him and others in the January 2017 killing of 35-year-old Robert Rios in Placentia and then the later attempted murder of Greg Munoz, a co-defendant in the Rios killing.
That case was beset by legal problems, prompting prosecutors to get an indictment from a grand jury in 2018. That indictment was thrown out for procedural errors in the presentation of evidence, so prosecutors charged Martinez and the other defendants again and were ordered to stand trial following a preliminary hearing.
But Donahue granted a motion preventing prosecutors from mentioning Johnny Martinez or the conspiracy to order the hit on Rios because the judge determined that a gang expert from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department lied about his training as part of a wide-ranging evidence-booking scandal in the department.
After Donahue dismissed the case against Martinez, federal prosecutors stepped in with a racketeering case in 2022 alleging murder, attempted murder, drug dealing and weapons charges.
Local authorities say Martinez ascended to power following the 2018 death of Peter Ojeda in prison, where he was serving a 15-year sentence. Like Ojeda, Martinez is accused of running the gang from jail and prison.
Martinez said he understands the risk of representing himself, but said he thinks “no one is going to fight as hard for Mr. Martinez as he will. This is because not only does Mr. Martinez know he is being falsely accused, but he also believes in justice and that his innocence will triumph. There is no victory without faith. And while Mr. Martinez may very well conduct his own defense ultimately to his own detriment his choice must be honored out of that respect for the individual which is the lifeblood of the law.”
Martinez argued that he believes an investigator “relied heavily on sheriff’s deputies and confidential informants to obtain one or more wire taps.” He said the sheriff’s deputies “have a colorful history of malfeasance, including perjury,” and that “at least two of the informants are career government witnesses.”
Some of those wire-tapped calls were played for jurors in the murder trial as part of the racketeering case.
Martinez also pointed to evidence used by Assistant Orange County Public Defender Scott Sanders in the so-called snitch scandal that led to prosecutors losing the ability to seek the death penalty against Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in Orange County history.
Martinez accused an investigator of providing “several hundred dollars and fast food from Carl’s Jr and Jack in the Box” to informants in the prosecution. Martinez also attacked the credibility of one of former shot-caller Omar Mejia, who has flipped and testified for prosecutors in the first murder trial of the racketeering case.
Martinez also demanded prosecutors turn over more evidence, complaining his defense team has been ignored.
“The stakes couldn’t be any higher,” he said. “Mr. Martinez no longer has a criminal record, and after serving decades of confinement for misdemeanor conduct, Mr. Martinez is truly fighting for the right to live and a second chance.”