Man sentenced to 77 years for deadly 2021 Desert Hot Springs shooting
A 30-year-old man was sentenced to 77 years and eight months in state prison today for fatally shooting a man in the living room of a Desert Hot Springs home after finding out the victim was in the same home as his girlfriend.
Daniel Ray Martinez of Desert Hot Springs was found guilty June 29 of one felony count each of murder and being a felon and narcotic addict in possession of a firearm. A sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury was additionally found true.
His co-defendant, 41-year-old Jesus Gabriel Pena, who was accused of deleting evidence after-the-fact, was acquitted of one felony count of being an accessory.
The charges stem from the Sept. 8, 2021 shooting of Javier "Happy" Torres.
Following an argument with his girlfriend at the time, Martinez took her cell phone and belongings before she went to her friend Jonathan Berry's house, Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao told jurors during opening statements at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
At some point, Martinez became aware that Torres, who was previously in a relationship with his girlfriend, was also at Berry's home.
He drove there and kicked down the door to the living room, where he shot Torres three times, Paixao said, adding that Martinez acted on jealousy when in reality, Torres and his girlfriend were in separate rooms of the home.
"This is made up in his head. ... They weren't in the same room. There was no evidence they were, so he can't set up this make-believe affair in his head and then come over and kill Happy because of it,'' Paixao said.
Paixao said Torres was then dropped off by Pena at the fire department in Desert Hot Springs, where he ultimately died from his injuries -- two gunshot wounds to a thigh and one to his chest.
Martinez was arrested in San Diego County.
