Suspect in Martens case seeks release
Fabian Gonzales has been locked up in the county jail on a $1 million cash-only bond for three years and two months.
As the case against the man once suspected of drugging, raping and killing 10-yearold Victoria Martens drags on, his attorney again filed a motion asking for a judge to release him.
The motion filed Friday asks state District Judge Charles Brown to hold a hearing in order to conduct an expedited review, release Gonzales on reasonable pretrial conditions, and “grant such further relief as justice requires.”
It asks that Gonzales, 35, be allowed to stay with his family on house arrest and be outfitted with a GPS monitor.
For one thing, his attorney Stephen Aarons
argues, Gonzales is no longer facing the heinous charges he once was. Prosecutors discovered he and Victoria’s mother, Michelle Martens, were not in the apartment when the girl was killed. An autopsy found she did not have drugs in her system and it did not find that she had been raped.
Last fall the District Attorney’s Office dropped the murder and rape charges and instead charged Gonzales with reckless abuse of a child resulting in death and several counts of tampering with evidence. Prosecutors now say Gonzales’s cousin Jessica Kelley was at home with Victoria when a man came in looking for Gonzales and instead killed the girl in retaliation. Prosecutors say the two cousins then dismembered Victoria and set her body on fire in order to destroy the evidence.
“Defendant did not direct anyone to harm the child but, according to the prosecution, recklessly put the child in harm’s way from an unknown hit man,” Aarons wrote in the motion, adding that Gonzales is no longer charged with violent offenses.
Gonzales was arrested in August 2016 before the state passed and enacted a constitutional amendment on bond reform. That amendment allows a person charged with a crime to be released if a judge determines he or she is not a danger to society and a flight risk.
At that time, a judge ordered Gonzales to be held on a $1 million cash-only bond.
Since then, Martens pleaded guilty to child abuse recklessly caused resulting in death. Kelley pleaded no contest to child abuse recklessly caused resulting in death, tampering with evidence and aggravated assault. She faces 50 years in prison.
In response to questions about the next steps for prosecutors, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office said this is the fourth time such a motion has been filed.
“We are reviewing this latest COR (conditions of release) motion,” Michael Patrick wrote.
He also pointed out that after Aarons filed a previous motion to release Gonzales last December the state filed a response asking for him to be held. That motion is pending.
A hearing to review the motion asking for Gonzales to be released has not yet been set.