Martinez Trial

During the second day of testimony in the trial of the state of Nebraska vs. Larry Martinez the defense called into question how much the defendant, who has a hearing impairment, actually understood during an interview with police.

Martinez, 54, is charged with first degree murder, a class IA felony and the use of a firearm to commit a felony, a class IC felony, for shooting and killing 30-year-old Mandy Kershman.

Martinez, who was reportedly angered by a derogatory text message from Kershman, who he was dating at the time, is accused of shooting the victim in a home on the north side of Sidney on the afternoon of July 18, 2012.

Although the state had not yet rested its case, due to scheduling issues the defense called its first witness on Tuesday morning.

Dr. Stacie Ray took the stand on behalf of the defense. She is an audiologist trained to assess and treat hearing loss. She informed the court about the many tests she performed to determine the cause and severity of Martinez’s hearing loss. She found through a letter from a prior doctor that Martinez used hearing aides at around age eight.

The doctor at the time assumed that the cause of his hearing loss was congenital.

When testing patients Ray assesses the workings of the outer, middle and inner ear, as well as the nerve that sends audio signals to the brain. Ray’s final determination of the severity of a patient’s hearing loss is based on both objective and subjective tests.

Objective tests include one which measures the reflexes of a certain muscle in the ear and its response to loud noises as well as another test which measures a patient’s brainwaves when he hears various tones through headphones. Subjective tests include a patient’s ability to recognize spoken words and to hear tones at various volumes and frequencies.

Ray then studies the results from all the various tests to ensure that they all match for the same type and level of hearing loss. In Martinez’s case, the results of all the tests corroborated one another.

“The evidence did cross check appropriately,” Ray said.

After analyzing the accumulation of tests, Ray determined that Martinez does suffer from hearing difficulty.

“The test results indicate a severe to profound bilateral—meaning in both ears—hearing loss,” Ray said.

Martinez’s hearing threshold is much higher than average, which means noises must be louder for him to hear them than for the average person. Ray determined that he is functionally deaf to higher pitched frequencies, including certain sounds that make up letters or combinations such as “f”, “th” and “s”. He also has a hard time forming these sounds when speaking since he can’t hear them, she commented.

Ray recommended strategies for communication with Martinez, including the use of written or visual cues when needed. In the courtroom Martinez can read real time captions of what’s being said, which are typed on a computer next to him.

Martinez was outfitted with hearing aides prior to the trial. With hearing aides, he has normal hearing at lower pitches, but still suffers moderate to severe hearing loss at higher pitches.

Ray noticed some of what she called red flags when she viewed a recording of an interview between the defendant and local law enforcement performed shortly after Martinez’s arrest. She observed a few indications that Martinez experienced trouble understanding some of the question, she told the court. Martinez did not inform law enforcement of his hearing impairment before the interview and did not have hearing aides at the time.

Hiding one’s hearing loss is not uncommon among those who suffer it, Ray added.

“If you’re used to coping with a hearing loss, there’s ways of coping without shining a light on your hearing loss,” Ray said.

According to Ray, sometimes a person with hearing loss will think he understands or act like he understands a question when he truly doesn’t.

“There were a few items from it that made me wonder if Mr. Martinez understood everything that was being said,” Ray said.

Some of these indicators included Martinez’s movement closer to the person interviewing him which could indicate he had trouble hearing the man. At one point during the questioning, the defendant responded with his middle initial when asked if his real name was Larry. Another sign, in Ray’s opinion was that Martinez didn’t respond to environmental noise such as a beeping and a squeaking door.

A few of his responses during the interview didn’t make sense in Ray’s opinion. A person with Martinez’s level of hearing loss might affirm a question posed to him without actually understanding or comprehending the full breadth of what was asked, she explained.

Ray acknowledged that she could not determine the amount of words in any conversation that Martinez actually comprehends.

“That is subjective and that’s only something that Mr. Martinez can attest to,” Ray said.

On questioning from the prosecution, Ray acknowledged that she didn’t know if Martinez failed to hear background noise during the interview with police or if he was just ignoring it.

Michael Guinan, representing the prosecution, questioned if Ray thought from watching the video that Martinez was totally confused about where he was and why the interview was being conducted.

“No, it didn’t appear that he had no idea what was going on,” Ray said.

She confirmed that there didn’t seem to be any confusion about questions pertaining to Martinez’s trip to Leland Blake’s home where the shooting took place, the fact that he brought a gun with him or his confession to shooting Kershman.

The state continued its case on Tuesday afternoon with the testimony of Sidney police investigator Justin Loghry.

Loghry compiled a photo lineup to show to Leland Blake shortly after the shooting, which took place at his home, Blake correctly identified Martinez and then directed the investigator to Martinez’s residence at the time, 1701 Manor Dr. in Sidney.

Martinez’s vehicle was parked outside when the two drove past the house.

Loghry then worked with the local SWAT team to conduct surveillance on the home until a search warrant could be secured. Loghry followed Martinez’s two roommates Curtis and Donald Schlieker when they left the residence together that evening. Soon after this, Martinez also left the home and Loghry followed.

Martinez was stopped by multiple local law enforcement individuals when heading south on highway 385 about two miles north of Sidney, Loghry said.

Sgt. Tim Craig of the Sidney police department then spoke to the court concerning the execution of the search warrant at 1701 Manor Dr. Law enforcement found the alleged murder weapon inside the residence underneath a table in the living room.

“Directly underneath that end table was a 9 mm glock pistol,” Craig said.

Law enforcement allegedly located two glass pipes in Donald Schlieker’s bedroom containing a white crystal substance assumed to be methamphetamine. Additional pipes with assumed methamphetamine were also discovered in a storage room in the basement of the home. Law enforcement also discovered marijuana paraphernalia in the basement of the home.

Only residual amounts of controlled substances were found at 1701 Manor Dr., Craig confirmed, and none were linked to Martinez.

Multiple law enforcement personnel testified that there was no indication from their dealings with Martinez that he has a significant hearing loss. More than one member of the local law enforcement community attested to Martinez’s ability to comply with commands and answer questions even when posed by someone standing behind him.

The trial continues on Wednesday.