Ruben Martinez. Photo via Orange County Sheriff’s Department
A 29-year-old man was convicted Friday of first-degree murder for stabbing his mother’s boyfriend to death in anger about the way the victim treated her.
Ruben Martinez was convicted of killing 52-year-old Maximino Fuentes Clara of Garden Grove as he sat in his pickup truck at Cerritos Avenue and Perdido Street in unincorporated Anaheim on Nov. 16, 2014.
Martinez, who has a prior 2009 conviction for carjacking, faces up to 52 years to life in prison. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on May 12.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Keith Burke told jurors that the defendant’s statements to police following the stabbing indicated he had long- simmering antagonism toward Clara.
“It’s been bothering him,” Burke said. “It didn’t just erupt in the truck. That night he’d been holding it in for awhile.”
Martinez got a knife out of a dish drawer in the family’s kitchen and brought it out to the truck where his mother’s boyfriend was waiting for her, the prosecutor said.
“He believes Mr. Clara disrespected his mom,” Burke said.
The victim had undergone back surgery and was “not able-bodied,” the prosecutor said. “This was an ambush. He jumped him, and Mr. Clara never saw it coming.”‘
Martinez’s attorney, Michael Becker, told jurors that the two had never had an argument before that night.
Clara, the defendant, his girlfriend, his son and his mother all went out to swap meets earlier that day to shop, Becker said.
The defendant had been complaining of headaches and was encouraged to see a doctor, but he did not want to go and they continued shopping, the defense attorney said.
Eventually, the defendant, his girlfriend and his mother went to a nearby hospital emergency room, but the wait was two hours and the defendant decided to leave and go home before being treated, Becker said.
Clara left them for a short while to drop off the defendant’s girlfriend and son and then returned to the Martinez home to take the defendant’s mother to dinner, Becker said.
Martinez went out to talk to Clara, “with nothing in his hands,” and for the first time an argument ensued between the two, Becker said.
“Max said something ugly about his mother that to this day he still doesn’t want to say,” Becker told the jury.
Later in the trial, it was revealed that the victim supposedly insulted the defendant in Spanish in what could be translated to English as calling him a “son of a whore,” Becker said Friday.
The attorney said his client grabbed a knife in the “center console” of the truck during the conflict between the two and stabbed Clara. He said Martinez made no effort to flee the scene and argued for a second-degree or manslaughter conviction.
— City News Service
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