Martinez found guilty in stabbing death

CLOVIS - Unmoved by defense counsel's argument of his insanity at the time, a Curry County jury on Thursday found Lorenzo Martinez guilty of the brutal stabbing death last year of Mary Neal.

The trial took almost four days, followed by hours of deliberation.

Martinez, 52, had called police the night of Feb. 13, 2017, and told them he'd stabbed Neal in the neck "like 18 times" that evening because she was "irritating" him. He also said he then twice had sex with her body in the hours after her death.

The jury convicted Martinez of both first-degree murder and third-degree criminal sexual penetration but acquitted him on a tampering with evidence charge. He faces life in prison plus three years or more in a sentencing hearing this month.

"He called in and told me that he basically murdered somebody," Clovis Police Dispatcher Eric Galvan said in court Tuesday.

In a recording of that call played to the jury, Galvan asked Martinez how it was she annoyed him.

"By being alive," replied Martinez, who stayed on the line while police headed to his residence on the 500 block of Clovis' West Fourth Street.

Martinez filled the silence singing verses from the Red Hot Chili Peppers: "California, rest in peace, simultaneous release. California, show your teeth: She's my priestess, I'm your priest."

He continued: "Yeah, yeah..."

In an ensuing interview with police, Martinez said he'd idolized serial killers, wanted to kill someone for a while and felt good when he did it.

In closing arguments Thursday, Martinez's defense attorney Gary Mitchell said it was plain from his client's behavior that night that he was mentally ill. Not only that, experts from both defense and prosecution testified week that Martinez had some form of schizophrenia, but lawyers differed as to whether or not he experienced an episode on the eve of Valentine's Day last year.

Mitchell said Martinez has been a schizophrenic since the age of 19, and has sought treatment throughout the state in Albuquerque, Roswell and Clovis. He lived previously in California but resided in Clovis "a few years" prior to last year's incident.

"That's an incurable disease, and tragically, despite his attempts to get help and despite his going to places that rendered as much as they could possibly provide, it didn't happen," Mitchell told The News. "It's just a reflection of our society and it's a shameful reflection. Absent the mental health issues, this never would have occurred."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover acknowledged Martinez' history of mental illness, but said it wasn't at play when he killed last year.

Testimony from a clinical psychologist on Wednesday indicated Martinez didn't meet much of the legal criteria for insanity, since "he knew what he was doing and he knew it was wrong."

Edward Siegel said he'd interviewed Martinez for several hours last month, and found evidence that he had at least previously been able to control himself from acting on suicidal and homicidal impulses (another component of the legal definition of insanity). He described an occasion Martinez recounted when he thought to kill a woman and her daughter in a laundromat in Roswell, but stopped himself. On another occasion, during previous psychoanalysis, he thought "kill the psychiatrist," but stopped himself then as well.

Stover argued it was a different situation last year: less of a "command hallucination" and more simply a murder with motive. Neal was drinking and threatening to call the police, who would have likely arrested Martinez. Instead, Stover argued, he killed Mary Neal and assaulted her as a means of asserting power and "punishing" not only her but all the women with whom he had various grievances. The fact that Martinez selected a knife, told his victim, "I have a surprise for you," and laughed while stabbing her eight times showed cognizance and intention rather than impulse, the prosecutor argued.

"He wanted to," Stover said in closing arguments. "Lorenzo Martinez consciously, willfully, deliberately murdered Mary Neal. He is not insane. He is guilty, is what he is."

After almost five hours of deliberations Thursday, a jury of seven men and five women agreed with Stover as to that guilt.

"I know it was a difficult decision to make with a complex issue, but at the end of the day I know that they made the right decision and that decision is making our community safer," Stover told The News. "And what people really need to know is that 'not guilty by reason of insanity' would mean he would be taking to the streets tonight. That's really a gap or an error in the criminal code, that if he's found not guilty by reason of insanity he's out and free. That's why we put so much effort (into the case)."

Martinez sat impassively through the court proceedings. Mitchell said he was "chained to the desk" and "taking massive amounts of medication" to make it through trial. Mitchell wasn't optimistic about Martinez's opportunities for treatment in prison. Stover was a little more hopeful on that point.

"What people have to understand is that the Department of Corrections is exactly that: the Department of Corrections," Stover said. "They will afford him the appropriate mental health care in the structured environment that he needs."

Judge Fred Van Soelen presided over the trial, also prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Claire Adams.