Trial date set for 32-Year-Old Cathedral City murder suspect
A 2025 trial date was confirmed today for a 32-year-old man accused in a fatal shooting in Cathedral City.
Along with a murder charge, Jose Ernesto Martinez of Desert Hot Springs is facing sentence-enhancing allegations including discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury and using a weapon in commission of a crime.
Martinez's trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 28, according to case records.
The defendant was arrested June 26, 2021, on suspicion of gunning down then-27-year-old Isaac Valles of Rancho Mirage earlier that morning. He allegedly killed Valles at the conclusion of a domestic dispute, according to the Cathedral City Police Department, which did not elaborate on the nature of the argument.
Officers sent to the 31800 block of Neuma Drive about 2:40 a.m. that day found the victim lying in the roadway, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Despite first responders' attempts to revive him, Valles was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives collected "ample witness statements and crime scene evidence'' that pointed to Martinez as the suspect, according to the department. He was arrested in Desert Hot Springs about two hours after police initially arrived on scene, jail records show.
Martinez remains held at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio on $1 million bail. He had no documented felony convictions in Riverside County at the time.
