The Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld Lydia Martinez’s 2021 conviction for first-degree murder on Tuesday.
Lawyers representing Martinez unsuccessfully argued she was not provided with the right to a speedy trial, she was denied trial in a proper venue and the trial court failed to provide a sufficient record of her appeal.
An Oktibbeha County Circuit Court jury convicted Martinez in March 2021 of the June 24, 2015, shooting death of her son-in-law, 40-year-old Manuel Vasquez, in New Hope. She was sentenced to life in prison.
During the trial in Oktibbeha County, Lydia and her daughter Christina Martinez — Manuel’s wife — both admitted to concealing and burning the victim’s body in a galvanized water trough and scattering some of his remains in a wooded area on the property of their New Hope home following the shooting.
In the Oktibbeha County trial, the pair each testified that the other pulled the trigger on the two shots that ultimately took Vasquez’s life. In 2019, Christina pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge and received a 25-year sentence.
A Lowndes County grand jury indicted Lydia Martinez in 2015 for accessory after the fact. In October 2019, a grand jury returned a second indictment against Lydia for a first-degree murder charge.
Sixty-seven months passed between Lydia’s arrest and her trial, the appeals court opinion said. But delays were caused by investigatory delay, continuances, a failure to appear, an inability to serve Lydia’s second indictment and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Less than a month before her final trial date of March 15, 2021, Lydia filed a demand for a speedy trial. However, the Court of Appeals decision found that Lydia joined or caused the continuances that delayed her trial even after that demand was filed.
“Viewing the record as a whole, a vast majority of the time between Lydia’s arrest in July 2015 and her eventual trial in March 2021 is contributed to the defense and weighs against Lydia for purposes of a speedy trial violation,” the majority opinion reads.
Lydia’s counsel claimed that the time that passed before her trial led to witnesses being unable to recall events surrounding Vasquez’s death.
However, Lydia’s claim failed to identify any specific witnesses or specific testimony affected by the time frame, the Court of Appeals found, making these claims insufficient to prove prejudice.
Finally, the court found that Lydia failed to provide evidence that the change of venue was improper, since she and her counsel had agreed to the change of venue from Lowndes County to Oktibbeha County before the trial.
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