POMONA - A 24-year-old man convicted of murdering a man to avenge his brother's slaying had his future prison sentence significantly lengthened today when a jury convicted him of a key "special allegation" that he used a firearm.
A jury of seven men and five women deliberated two days in Pomona Superior Court before unanimously agreeing this afternoon that Joel Martin used a firearm in Feb. 4, 2009 killing of Carlos Espinoza.
Espinoza, 22, died after a gunman in a passing Chevy Astro van shot him six times while he waited at a bus stop near Mission Boulevard and Buena Vista Avenue in Pomona.
Prosecutors allege Martin targeted Espinoza because he was friends with the alleged gang members who shot and killed his brother two months earlier.
The trial that ended today was Martin's second. At his first trial, held last year, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder but deadlocked on whether he personally discharged a firearm.
Prosecutors pursued a second trial in Martin's case because the special allegation carries an extra prison term of 25 years to life.
Second-degree murder carries a sentence of 15 years to life. With today's verdict, Martin now faces a prison term of 40 years to life, said his attorney, Antonio Bestard. Martin is scheduled to be sentenced April 26.
Police identified Martin as the suspect in the shooting based on the dying words of Espinoza, who told two officers that the shooter was a man he knew by the nickname "Guero," whose brother had recently been shot to death.
But after the shooting, there was no trace of Martin in Pomona. More than a year passed before Detective Mark McCann discovered that Martin was living with his brother in Portales, New Mexico.
When McCann interviewed Martin after his arrest, Martin denied his involvement before finally confessing that he was Espinoza's killer. He also acknowledged that "Guero" was his nickname.
In his closing argument to the jury, Bestard suggested that Martin's confession was false, and only contained facts about the killing that were gleaned from the detective's questions.
Martin's prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Bjorn Dodd, dismissed Bestard's theory as implausible.
"Why would he ever admit to being in that van or being part of it?" Dodd said.