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Sexual assault trial continues today
Published October 8, 2009
Testimony in the trial of a man accused of having sex with his wife's 15-year-old sister continues today in state district court.
The five women and seven men selected to serve as jurors in the trial of Evodio Martinez on Wednesday afternoon heard opening statements from 63rd Judicial District Attorney Fred Hernandez and from Melissa Hagen, chief public defender of the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Regional Public Defender's Office, who is one of two attorneys representing Martinez.
Martinez, who listened to the proceedings through a translator, is accused of having sex with his wife's 15-year-old sister, identified as “O.C.”
Martinez was charged with the offense of sexual assault after a neighbor and Martinez's wife told a Val Verde County Sheriff's Office deputy about the incident and an investigation of the case ensued.
Hernandez in his opening statement told jurors what he expected the evidence in the case would show.
“This case is sort of juicy, but not in a good way,” Hernandez said.
He told the jurors that sexual assaults are difficult to investigate and to prosecute, especially when the case involves a family member, as the Martinez case does.
Hernandez told the jury that “O.C.” is “totally in love” with Martinez.
The district attorney said Martinez, in an interview with sheriff's office investigators Larry Pope and Jessica Navarro, repeatedly denied having sex with his sister-in-law.
Then, Hernandez said, Martinez told the investigators he had only had sex with her once.
Hernandez told the jury Martinez's wife left their home to get a haircut, but returned earlier than expected and found her partially-clothed husband walking out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Hernandez said the wife found her sister, “O.C.” sitting on the bed in her underwear and wrapped in a sheet or blanket.
In her opening statement, Hagen told the jurors, “Evodio is innocent.”
She asked the jurors to keep an open mind, listen to the examination of the witnesses and “resist the natural tendency to conclude that where there's smoke, there's fire.”
Hagen said “O.C.” went to live with Martinez and his wife, but noted there were always “issues between the sisters.”
Hagen said Martinez's wife, who is scheduled to testify as a witness for the prosecution, wasn't sure what she had seen when she came home from the hairdresser's. Hagen said Martinez's wife then confided in a neighbor, and it was the neighbor who insisted she report the incident to law enforcement.
Hagen said the neighbor, who is also scheduled to testify, told Martinez's wife they were going shopping and instead took her to the sheriff's office.
“O.C.” did not come in to make a statement, so sheriff's office investigators went to the Martinez residence in Val Verde Park Estates and “forcibly, physically” removed the girl from the home, Hagen told the jury.
Hagen also said that “lies were told” during the interrogation of Martinez in an attempt by the sheriff's office investigators to obtain a confession and that “no medical evidence” was gathered from “O.C.,” who Hagen said denied having sexual contact with her sister's husband.
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