Opinion ID: 6341049
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Testimony of Oscar Fryer

Text: Also at trial, the prosecution called Oscar Fryer as a witness to testify about his conversation with Martinez at the Globe carwash prior to Officer Martin’s murder. Fryer testified that Martinez had told him there was a warrant out for his arrest, that he was on probation, that he had a gun, and that if he was stopped by police, “he wasn’t going back to jail.” In its closing argument, the prosecution repeatedly referred to Fryer’s testimony, emphasizing Martinez’s statement that “he wasn’t going back to jail,” as central evidence of both his motive and premeditation. The prosecution also emphasized two additional pieces of evidence showing premeditation: (1) the time between the traffic stop and the shooting, and (2) the four times that 10 MARTINEZ V. SHINN Officer Martin was shot. That additional evidence was (and is) undisputed. Seven years after Martinez’s Arizona trial, Fryer spoke about his testimony to defense investigator Gerald Monahan, who had been appointed to work on Martinez’s subsequent California case. Monahan declares that Fryer told him that he “was high on methamphetamine at the time he testified against Mr. Martinez at trial”; that “it was his opinion that Mr. Martinez would shoot it out with police if he were pulled over by police, rather than be arrested”; and that “Mr. Martinez did not tell Mr. Fryer that he would shoot it out with police if he were pulled over.” Martinez argues that Fryer’s statements, as reported by Monahan, support his claim that he did not premeditate the murder of Officer Martin, and that he is therefore actually innocent of the death penalty.