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As an enthusiastic member of a gang, image was everything to Utahn Joe Perez, and the teen was stewing after a former member of a rival gang insulted him one day in May 2014 in front of a friend, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
So the then-17-year-old had another friend drive him to the Magna home of Carlos L. Martinez later the same day, Assistant Salt Lake County District Attorney Fred Burmester said. The 40-year-old Martinez walked out of his front door after he saw Perez get out of the car, Burmester said, but he didn't get far before the teen fired a handgun.
"Carlos Martinez fell on top of his own driveway, mortally wounded," Burmester told a jury Tuesday in the opening statements of Perez's trial for murder, a first-degree felony, and other crimes related to the death.
Defense attorney Rudy Bautista countered that all the evidence in the case comes from uncorroborated statements of Skyler Burnasconi, the friend who said he drove Perez, now 19, to the victim's home.
Burnasconi — who was arrested months after the slaying but released the same day after being questioned by Unified Police Department detectives — initially denied knowing anything about Martinez's death, Bautista said.
"He lied to them," the defense attorney said. "He continually told them he wasn't there."
But detectives told Burnasconi that he "could be a witness or a defendant," and he eventually said Perez was the shooter, Bautista said. The prosecution gave Burnasconi immunity, Bautista said, and he was not charged.
"In exchange for his story, he went home that day," Bautista said, adding that the wrong man is on trial.
Martinez was shot in front of his house near 3800 South Armoridge Drive (8180 West) at about 9 p.m. on May 4, 2014. Police said they had very limited information about the shooter, but Perez, a member of a subset of the Nortenos gang, eventually was identified as a suspect and charged in June 2015.
On the day he died, Martinez got into an argument with Perez and another teen about their gang representation in his neighborhood, according to investigators. Burmester said Martinez — who belonged to the Surenos gang when he was younger but was no longer a part of it — believed the two were "staring him down" as they walked down his street.
After the pair left, the Magna man and his daughter's boyfriend got into a car and located the teens several block away, where the argument continued.
Burnasconi, who said he associates with the Nortenos gang, testified Tuesday that Perez said Martinez called him names and that their confrontation almost became physical. Perez was vague about what happened, Burnasconi said, but he alluded to being outmatched by much larger rival gang members and having to back down.
He gave Perez and another man, whose name he says never learned, a ride to Magna, where at most, he expected a fistfight, Burnasconi said. However, he said, Perez got out of the car and fired within seconds of exiting.
"I was caught completely by surprise," Burnasconi said.
Perez left the gun in Burnasconi's car, he said, and retrieved it the next day. A few days later, Perez messaged him on Facebook to show off a new word tattooed on his chest — "Norte" — saying he "earned it," Burnasconi said.
Under cross-examination, Burnasconi denied that he had shot Martinez to curry favor with the Nortenos.
The trial is expected to last four days. Perez is being held on $1 million bail.
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