Jessica Marie Hann who use to be known as Jason Hann was sentenced to death by the State of California for the murders of his infant daughter and son plus the attempted murder of another child. According to court documents Jessica Marie Hann (Jason Hann) would beat to death his two month old son. Two years later she would beat to death another child, this time a ten month old daughter. The body of the second child would be found in a storage container after Hann failed to pay the rent. When authorities went to arrest Jessica Marie Hann (Jason Hann) and his common law wife Krissy Lynn Werntz who was the mother of the two children they would discover a third infant was showing signs of abuse. The pair would be arrested. Krissy Lynn Werntz would be found guilty to the murder of her daughter and sentenced to a fifteen year prison sentence. Jessica Marie Hann would be sentenced to death.
Jason Michael Hann (Jessica Marie Hann) admits he killed two of his children just weeks after they were born, his attorney said. Their bodies were found in separate storage lockers 1,500 miles apart in 2002.
Already serving up to 30 years in the Vermont prison system for the 1999 death of his son, Hann’s murder trial began Monday in the 2001 killing of his daughter, Montana, who prosecutors say died in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. She was 2½ months old.
Riverside County prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty for Hann by invoking the “special circumstance” of a previous murder conviction. If the jury finds him guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstance, it will then decide if the death sentence should be imposed. The other option would be life without possibility of parole.
Jason Hann (Jessica Marie Hann), who has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge, has had severe bipolar disorder since early childhood, his lawyer Brenda Miller said. She asked the jury of nine women and three men at Larson Justice Center in California to consider a second-degree murder charge in light of that information.
Miller compared Hann’s cycles of rage to a swing on a children’s playground — going up and down — and said 10-week-old Montana took the brunt of it one day almost 13 years ago.
“Just as his anxiety and his rage was reaching its peak, Montana began to cry, and her cries got louder and louder, and his rage just exploded,” Miller said, at which point Hann punched the baby with a closed fist.
Jason Hann (Jessica Marie Hann) had been treated several times for bipolar disorder, but he checked himself out of facilities against medical advice and refused to take medication
“Mental illness is no excuse” for what Hann did, Miller said, but she asked the jury to consider the lesser conviction, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life.
Investigators in Arkansas, where Montana’s remains were found, determined she died while her parents lived in Desert Hot Springs, and her body was wrapped inside garbage bags and placed in a “blue Tupperware-type container,” deputy Riverside County district attorney Lisa DiMaria said. Then the couple, who DiMaria said lived a “transient, gypsy-style life” beginning in 1998, left for Arkansas. They rented a storage locker, where they kept a trailer containing Montana’s body. A year after Montana died, her parents had stopped paying for the locker and the contents were auctioned off. The buyer called police after finding the body.
An all-points-bulletin found Jason Hann (Jessica Marie Hann) and the children’s mother, Krissy Lynn Werntz, in a Motel 6 in Portland, Maine, with a 1-month old son, named Jason, who was found to have numerous broken ribs, bleeding under his skull and other internal injuries, according to the prosecution. The state placed this child with foster parents, who eventually adopted him.
Witness Jennifer Bloom, an employee of Maine’s Department of Human Services, testified she and a colleague were sent to check on the new baby’s welfare, and Hann admitted to being involved with the deaths of his two other children.
“He said he was responsible for both deaths. He didn’t provide a lot of detail. He said, ‘I fell and blacked out with the baby,'” Bloom said. She added Hann said he felt guilty about the deaths, and felt he had to keep moving to evade police
The body of the couple’s first child, who also was named Jason, was found similarly wrapped in trash bags inside a rubber container, in a storage locker in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He was 6 weeks old when he died.
Jason Hann (Jessica Marie Hann) was extradited to California in 2009 to be tried for Montana’s death, and it took four years for the death-penalty case to make its way through the system and into opening arguments.
DiMaria explained to the jury the two boys would be referred to as “Jason One” and “Jason Two” during the course of the trial to differentiate between them, though the surviving boy also may be called by his adoptive name, Michael.
Almost all witnesses are being flown in from out of state, due to the couple’s frequent relocations.
Testimony is expected to end next week.
Werntz, Montana’s mother, is facing a murder charge and was originally scheduled to be tried at the same time as Hann, but family medical problems have postponed her trial, DiMaria said.
Documents just filed in Marin County, California show Jason Michael Hann is now known as Jessica Marie Hann, and is now a female “to match my gender identity.”
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Health Care Communications Chief Liz Gransee said as of February 2019, “10 patients statewide have been approved for gender-affirming surgery.” Due to HIPPA guidelines, she could not comment on specific inmates.
Hann’s changing mugshots reflect his transition from male to female, the gender now indicated on her birth certificate.
“Senate Bill 310 allows a state prisoner or county jail inmate the right to petition a court to obtain a name or gender change,” said CDCR Deputy Press Secretary Terry Thornton. “SB 310 requires CDCR to use the new name of the person who obtains a name change and to list the prior name only as an alias. CDCR updated Hann’s records and made notification to the victim on file on Feb. 14.”
On Feb. 21, 2014, an Indio judge sentenced then 40 year old Jason Hann to death for killing his 10 month old daughter, named Montana, in 2001. At the time, Hann and Montana’s mother, Krissy Lynn Werntz, now 39, were living in Desert Hot Springs.
Montana’s body was found in a Tupperware container wrapped in a plastic trash bag in an abandoned storage trailer the couple had left in Arkansas. The couple was arrested in Portland, Maine, where they were living with another son, who was suffering from life threatening injuries. That son was taken into foster care and later adopted.
The couple’s arrest led authorities to find the body of a second infant in a trailer in Arizona. Authorities determined that 2 month old boy had been killed before their daughter Montana, at some point when the couple was living in Vermont.
Hann was convicted 1st in Vermont, and extradited to Indio, where a jury recommended the death penalty.
“These kids never had a chance at life so it was more than deserved, and I think he tried to cover up the crime as well,” said alternate juror Bob Price.
“The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution requires that prisons provide medically necessary treatment for inmates’ medical needs, ” said Thornton. California was the 1st state to pay for prisoner’s sex reassignment surgery.
Hann in still in custody at San Quentin, which is a male-only facility, and she is allowed personal property items in accordance with her gender identity, such as a bra, hair rollers, or makeup.
Werntz was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for her role in Montana’s death. She is housed at Chowchilla, but some part of her case is being heard Friday in Indio.
Hann’s attorney did not return a call for comment.
Lorraine Hunter is currently on California Death Row for the murder of her husband in order to collect the insurance money. According to court documents Lorraine Hunter took out two additional insurance policies worth over three quarters of a million dollars in the weeks preceding the murder.
On the night of the murder Lorraine Hunter and her daughter Briuana Hunter, who was fifteen at the time, went with the victim to his semi truck where he would be shot twice in the head and twice in the back. Initially police believed the murder was related to a robbery however they would soon figure out the awful truth.
A death sentence was handed down Friday, Dec. 8, for a Moreno Valley woman who fatally shot her 56-year-old husband to collect more than $1 million in life insurance proceeds.
A Riverside jury in August convicted 62-year-old Lorraine Alison Hunter of murder in the slaying of Albert Thomas in 2009 and ultimately recommended that she be put to death.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher agreed with the jury’s recommendation, rejecting a defense plea for Hunter’s sentence to be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Along with first-degree murder, jurors in her two-month trial found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and killing for financial gain.
The prosecution’s key witness was Hunter’s now-23-year-old daughter, Briuana Lashanae Hunter, who confessed to plotting with her mother to kill Thomas.
Briuana Hunter pleaded guilty last year to three counts of attempted murder and one count of voluntary manslaughter. She’s slated to be sentenced Wednesday to 18 years, nine months in state prison.
The young woman, who’s being held without bail at the Indio Jail, testified that her stepfather was a “calm, quiet person,” who was “never overly aggressive” in the seven years that she and her mother lived with him in Moreno Valley.
The witness stated that he held down two jobs — one as a short-haul trucker and another as a clerk at a Moreno Valley Auto Zone.
According to Hunter, her mother frequently argued with Thomas about not having enough money to spend. Deputy District Attorney Will Robinson described the elder Hunter as “money hungry” and not interested in holding down a job to contribute to the household
Briuana Hunter said she aided her mother in filling out at least three life insurance applications, naming her stepfather as the insured party and Lorraine Hunter as the principal beneficiary. The woman forged Thomas’ name on each application.
Hunter took out a $750,000 policy, as well as a $10,000 policy, Robinson said. A third policy apparently lapsed before Thomas was killed.
Thomas additionally had a $450,000 policy through the trucking company for which he worked, according to court papers.
In the two months before he was killed, Lorraine Hunter planned to shoot Thomas three other times — twice on walks through their neighborhood in the area of Day Street and Eucalyptus Avenue, and another time outside the victim’s workplace — but each time, the presence of too many witnesses foiled the plots.
Briuana Hunter admitted being there on each occasion, knowing beforehand what her mother had planned.
On the evening of Nov. 3, 2009, Thomas and the defendants left their apartment and strolled to his big rig, where he wanted to grab a sweatshirt that he had bought for Briuana Hunter, who was 15 at the time, according to trial testimony.
The three of them climbed into his truck, and Thomas ducked into the rear sleeper compartment to find the shirt, while Lorraine Hunter and her daughter sat in the front seat. Robinson said Lorraine Hunter pulled a small-caliber handgun she’d stolen from a member of her church and shot the victim point-blank in the back of the head twice, then shot him twice in the upper back as he knelt in the compartment. Sheriff’s deputies found him dead in a kneeling position.
Hunter and her daughter fled the scene with the help of a relative, and the case went cold for two years, until the same relative confessed everything she knew to investigators after being arrested herself for an unrelated offense.
Robinson theorized during Hunter’s penalty trial that she was a sociopath with blood on her hands when she married Thomas.
The prosecutor argued to jurors that she had masterminded, and probably carried out, the slaying of her previous husband, Allen Brown, who was gunned down in what appeared to be a random act of violence in Inglewood in 1996. The circumstances were eerily similar to Thomas’ death, with Brown shot in the back, and like Thomas, the victim was a truck driver.
No charges were ever filed in the case, which remains unsolved.
This is the second death sentence in Riverside in one week. On Dec. 1, San Jacinto gang member Raymond Alex Barrera received a death sentence for three slayings in 2013.
When it comes to notorious serial killers Richard Ramirez name tends to be found at the top of the list. Richard Ramirez who the media dubbed The Night Stalker operated in California for only a few years but he left behind at least thirteen bodies in his wake. In this article on My Crime Library we are going to take a closer look at The Night Stalker
Richard Ramirez Childhood
Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso Texas on February 29, 1960 to Julian and Mercedes Ramirez, he was the youngest of five children. Richard father was former police officer in Mexico and would later work as a laborer on the Sante Fe Railway. His father was know to be physically abusive towards his family.
Richard Ramirez would idolize his uncle Miguel (“Mike”) Ramirez a former Green Beret who would share with the ten year old child his exploits during the Vietnam war. He would also share photographs of women he had raped and murdered during the war. The uncle would also allow Richard to smoke marijuana with him while he was just ten years old.
When Richard Ramirez was thirteen years old he watched his Uncle Miguel shoot his wife in the face causing her death. Miguez Ramirez was arrested and charged with the murder however would get off on an insanity plea and would only serve four years in a Texas mental hospital.
When his uncle was sent to the mental hospital Richard Ramirez would move in with his aunt and uncle. Turns out the uncle was a sexual predator who would creep around the neighborhood peeping in windows and would often take the thirteen year old Richard with him.
When his Uncle Miguel was released from the Texas mental hospital his control over Richard continued.
Richard Ramirez would get a job while still a young teen as a cleaner at a Holiday Inn, Ramirez would use his passkey to steal from hotel guests. It was at this time he began fantasizing about rape and his interest in Satanism began.
Richard would be fired from the Holiday Inn after he attempted to rape a hotel guest. The woman’s husband would find the young teen attempting to sexually assault his wife and would beat the holy heck out of him however they lived out of State so declined to press charges
Richard Ramirez would drop out of school while in the ninth grade and would drift around until he moved to California when he was twenty two years old.
Richard Ramirez Murders
Richard Ramirez started off breaking into homes in the San Francisco area however that would soon change. The Night Stalker first victim was a nine year old girl who he would rape and murder before hanging her body from a pole. This crime would go unsolved until 2009 when DNA from the crime scene would match Ramirez.
Over the next thirteen months Ramirez would break into homes where he would brutally attack the homeowners leaving many dead. Richard would use an assortment of weapons to perform his kills from household objects to knives to tools.
Eventually the police would obtain a sketch of what The Night Stalker looked like and soon a image of him would be posted across California. Richard Ramirez would eventually see his image and attempted to flee however a group of people caught him, beat him and held onto him until police arrived.
Richard Ramirez Known Victims
When it comes to Richard Ramirez victims it can be a bit difficult for as recent as 2016 more deaths have been linked to The Night Stalker
Jennie Vincow – Jennie Vincow was 79 years old when she was murdered in June 28, 1984
Dale Okazasi- Dale Okazasi was 34 years old when she was murdered on March 17, 1985. Ramirez would also attack her roommate but thankfully she survived
Tsai-Lian “Veronica” Yu – Tsai-Lian “Veronica” Yu was murdered on the same day as Dale Okazasi, Yu was dragged from her vehicle and killed
Vincent Zazzara – Vincent Zazzara was 64 years old when Ramirez broke into his home and murdered him while he slept
Maxine Zazzara – Maxine Zazzara was murdered at the same time as her husband on March 27, 1985
William Doi- William Doi was fatally shot in his home on the 14 of May 1985. He was sixty five years old
Mable Bell – Mable Bell was 84 years old and murdered in her home on June 29, 1985
Mary Louise Cannon – Mary Louise Cannon was 77 years old when she was murdered on July 2, 1985
Joyce Lucille Nelson – Joyce Lucille Nelson was 61 years old when she was beaten to death in her home in July 7, 1985
Max Kneiding – Max Kneiding was shot and stabbed with a machete inside of his home on July 20, 1985. He was 68 years old
Lela Kneiding – Lela Kneiding was murdered at the same time as her husband
Chainarong Khovananth – Chainarong Khovananth was shot and killed while he slept on July 20, 1985
Elyas Abowath – Elyas Abowath was killed on August 8, 1985 while Richard Ramirez broke into the home
Richard Ramirez Trial
Richard Ramirez would go on trial on July 22, 1988. Richard who would show up for the trial with pentagrams drawn onto his hands and yelling “Hail Satan”. A rather odd event happened a few weeks into the trial when one of the jurors was found dead in her home. Of course people speculated that Richard Ramirez was somehow responsible for the murder however it would turn out the woman was killed by her boyfriend who would later kill himself
Ramirez was convicted of thirteen counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, eleven sexual assaults and fourteen burglaries. At the time the Richard Ramirez trial was the most expensive in California history until the OJ Simpson charade.
Richard Ramirez would be sentenced to death and sent to California Death Row
Richard Ramirez Death
Richard Ramirez would spend twenty three years on California Death Row until his death on June 7, 2013. According to autopsy results Richards cause of death was complications with B-cell lymphomas, a form of blood cancer. It was also found that Ramirez was dealing with Chronic substance abuse and chronic hepatitis C
Dedrick Gobert will forever be remembered as Dooky from the film Boyz N The Hood and unfortunately his life would be cut short at just twenty two years of age by a murder.
According to court documents Dedrick Gobert was attending an illegal street race when a fight would begin between tow rival groups. Sonny Enraca would pull out a gun and fire several times, striking and killing both Dedrick Gobert and his friend Ignacio Hernandez who attempted to protect Gobert from the bullets would also be struck and killed. Dedrick Gobert girlfriend, Jenny Hyon would be hit in the right side of the neck and the young woman would survive the injury however it would leave her paralyzed from the neck down.
Sonny Enraca would be arrested and later convicted on the double murder plus assault with a deadly weapon charged relating to Jenny Hyon and would ultimately would be sentenced to death. As of 2021 Sonny Enraca is still on California’s death row.
Dedrick Gobert Videos
Dedrick Gobert Killer – Sonny Enraca
At the time of the murder Sonny Enraca was the same age as Dedrick Gobert just twenty two years old. Sonny Enraca was from the Philipines and had joined a gang known as the Akrho Boyz Crazzy who were an affiliate of the Bloods street gang. This is the court testimony from a witness describing the event
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Late one evening Maile Gilleres and Jenny Hyon accompanied Ignacio Hernandez and Dedrick Gobert to the site of illegal street races. During one race Hernandez’s car was cut off by an “Asian”8 driver. Both men got out of their cars and fought. At least 10 other Asians surrounded Hernandez, but when the police arrived, everyone drove away.
Gobert, Hernandez, Hyon, and Gilleres drove to a nearby pizza parlor. When they got out of their cars, the same group of Asians approached them and the two groups cursed at one another. One of the Asians, whom Gilleres described as a Filipino,9 pointed a gun at Hyon. He put the weapon away when a slightly older Asian man said something to him. Gilleres told the older man that she would get her group to leave if he and his friends did the same. He nodded in agreement and the two groups parted.
Gobert got into his car and drove up and down the street for several minutes. A different group of 15 to 35 Asians, dressed in red, started chanting, “Blood, blood, blood.” Gilleres assumed they were claiming to be members of the Bloods gang. Gobert parked and approached the group. Making hand signs indicating he was a member of the Crips gang, Gobert said to them, “What’s up, cuz?”
A gang expert testified that it would be an insult for a member of a Crips gang to address members of a Bloods gang as “cuz” because the term is used to refer to Crips. He further testified they would have lost credibility in the gang culture if they had failed to avenge such an insult. Therefore, an attack on Gobert carried out under these circumstances would be undertaken for the benefit of defendant’s Akraho Boyz Crazzys (ABC) gang.
The Asians immediately charged Gobert, threw him to the ground, and beat him. As Hernandez and Gilleres tried to shield him, gunshots rang out. Gilleres saw an Asian man shooting down at Hernandez. Hyon was struck by a bullet. As a result of a neck wound, she was paralyzed from the chest down.”
Sonny Enraca would be arrested and first deny he had anything to do with the shooting but would change his tune pretty quick and would confess to the murder. In 1999 Sonny Enraca would be sentenced to death and remains on California Death Row
Dedrick Gobert Film History
Playing Dooky in Boyz N The Hood is the film that Dedrick Gobert is known for and it was also the first film that he had ever appeared in. Before his death Dedrick Gobert would have a part in both Poetic Justice and Higher Learning, with the latter being released after his death.
Dedrick Gobert More News
I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
A. Guilt Phase1. Prosecution Evidence
The victims were shot during a gang fight in November 1994. Associates of both defendant and the victims testified for the prosecution. Defendant’s companions identified him as the shooter, but the victims’ companions were uHnable to do so. Defendant admitted to both his friends and the police that he shot the victims.
a. Testimony of the Victims’ Companions
Late one evening Maile Gilleres and Jenny Hyon accompanied Ignacio Hernandez and Dedrick Gobert to the site of illegal street races. During one race Hernandez’s car was cut off by an “Asian”8 driver. Both men got out of their cars and fought. At least 10 other Asians surrounded Hernandez, but when the police arrived, everyone drove away.
Dedrick Gobert, Hernandez, Hyon, and Gilleres drove to a nearby pizza parlor. When they got out of their cars, the same group of Asians approached them and the two groups cursed at one another. One of the Asians, whom Gilleres described as a Filipino,9 pointed a gun at Hyon. He put the weapon away when a slightly older Asian man said something to him. Gilleres told the older man that she would get her group to leave if he and his friends did the same. He nodded in agreement and the two groups parted.
Dedrick Gobert got into his car and drove up and down the street for several minutes. A different group of 15 to 35 Asians, dressed in red, started chanting, “Blood, blood, blood.” Gilleres assumed they were claiming to be members of the Bloods gang. Gobert parked and approached the group. Making hand signs indicating he was a member of the Crips gang, Gobert said to them, “What’s up, cuz?”
A gang expert testified that it would be an insult for a member of a Crips gang to address members of a Bloods gang as “cuz” because the term is used to refer to Crips. He further testified they would have lost credibility in the gang culture if they had failed to avenge such an insult. Therefore, an attack on Dedrick Gobert carried out under these circumstances would be undertaken for the benefit of defendant’s Akraho Boyz Crazzys (ABC) gang.
The Asians immediately charged Dedrick Gobert, threw him to the ground, and beat him. As Hernandez and Gilleres tried to shield him, gunshots rang out. Gilleres saw an Asian man shooting down at Hernandez. Hyon was struck by a bullet. As a result of a neck wound, she was paralyzed from the chest down.
Gilleres did not identify defendant in a pretrial photo lineup. She testified at trial that he was not the person she saw shoot Hernandez. Instead, the shooter appeared to be the person who had pointed a gun at Hyon in the preceding incident. Hyon was unable to identify her assailant. She testified it was possible the shooter was the person who had earlier pointed a gun at her.
b. Testimony of Defendant’s Companions
Among the prosecution witnesses were four of defendant’s friends: Lester Maliwat, Roger Boring, Eric Garcia, and John Frick. Along with defendant, they were members of the ABC gang, an affiliate of the Bloods. Before driving to the street races that night, they had met at Boring’s home, where defendant was living. According to Boring, defendant was “drinking pretty heavily” and “doing speed.”10 Garcia testified that defendant used speed frequently and offered him some that night. According to Maliwat, defendant had a revolver with him.
After the races, the ABC gang members congregated in the parking lot of the pizza parlor. Dedrick Gobert drove up, approached them, and made hand signs indicating he was a member of the Crips gang. He said, “Fuck you, slobs.”11 According to one witness, he shouted, “I’m not afraid to die.” The ABC’s, including defendant, just laughed at Gobert because he appeared to be intoxicated and was outnumbered 10 or 20 to one. Then Gobert stuck his hand into his waistband. Thinking he was reaching for a gun, Boring, Maliwat, and the other ABC’s rushed him, knocked him down, and kicked him. According to Detective Schultz, Lester Maliwat told him defendant was involved in the fight. A passerby also told Schultz that “the shooter” was involved in the fight and had “gotten off the ground right prior to the shooting.”
Boring testified that he saw defendant shoot Dedrick Gobert. When Hernandez tried to shield Gobert with his body, defendant pulled him up and shot him, also. When Jenny Hyon kicked defendant in the back, he turned around and shot her.12
Maliwat testified that he ran away when he heard someone yell, “He has a gun.” From his car Maliwat saw defendant shoot a man lying on the ground. He could not see whether the victim was Gobert or Hernandez. Maliwat also saw a girl lying on the ground. As Maliwat began to drive away, defendant jumped in the car. Maliwat asked him why he shot the girl. Defendant said, “Fuck them. They deserved it.”13
Eric Garcia saw the fight and heard the shots. Another participant told Garcia that defendant was the shooter. Garcia confronted defendant, demanding to know why he did it. Defendant initially refused to answer, but finally replied, “Maybe they deserved it.” Defendant gave Garcia a revolver but reclaimed it a few days later. Defendant then gave the gun to another ABC member, Mike Betts. Defendant later called Garcia from jail and said he had confessed. He said that he would be a man about it and did not want the other ABC’s involved.
c. Defendant’s Confession
Following his arrest defendant waived his Miranda rights.14 The interrogation ended when defendant subsequently asked for a lawyer. However, during the booking process, defendant waived his rights again and confessed to the booking officer, Detective Spidle. Defendant now contends his second waiver was not knowing and intelligent. The facts relevant to this claim will be set forth below. (Post, pt. II.A.)
Defendant told Spidle the following. After the races, Dedrick Gobert15 drove up and skidded to a halt in front of the ABC’s. After apparently taking something out of his car, Gobert walked up to them. He was “claiming some crip gang” and “talking all sorts of shit .” Because they vastly outnumbered Gobert, the ABC’s “just started giggling.” Gilleres told Gobert, “[K]ick back, that’s not them.” However, Gobert challenged the gang and lifted up his shirt as if he had a gun. After an ABC gang member shouted, “[H]e’s reaching, he’s reaching,” someone punched Gobert, and they fell to the ground. When the other ABC’s rushed Gobert, his companions Ignacio Hernandez, Jenny Hyon, and Maile Gilleres came to his defense. Defendant told Spidle that he tried to “break it up.”
Hernandez shielded Gobert’s body with his own. Defendant grabbed Hernandez by the hair, pulled his head back, and asked him where he was from. When Hernandez hit his hand, defendant shot him with a .38–caliber revolver. Hernandez moved and defendant shot him again. Defendant claimed that before Hernandez hit him he had planned to shoot in the air to break up the fight. Defendant also claimed he was afraid Hernandez was about to shoot him with the gun that, defendant believed, Dedrick Gobert was carrying. He admitted, however, that he never saw a gun.
After Gobert cursed at him, defendant also shot Gobert. Defendant claimed he was also afraid Dedrick Gobert was about to grab a gun, although again he had not seen one.
Jenny Hyon pushed defendant, saying, “[F]uck you asshole, what are you doing.” She was about to hit him. Defendant pointed his gun at her and started walking backwards. When Hyon charged him, defendant shot her. He intended to fire in the air, “like right by her or ․ over her head.”
Defendant jumped into Lester Maliwat’s car. As Maliwat drove back to his house, defendant threw the gun out the window.
d. Forensic Evidence
When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene Hernandez and Dedrick Gobert were dead. Autopsies revealed they were shot from behind and died from their wounds. Hernandez was shot twice. One bullet entered his back and passed through his heart and lungs. The other entered the back of his head, went through his brain, and lodged underneath the skin of his forehead. Abrasions on Hernandez’s forehead suggested he was shot facedown on a hard surface that blocked the bullet’s exit. Dedrick Gobert was shot once, in the back of the head. According to eyewitness Alfred Ward, defendant shot Jenny Hyon “from behind” as well. The bullets recovered from Hernandez and Gobert were .38 caliber.
2. Defense Evidence
The defense called several eyewitnesses. Daryl Arquero, John Frick, and Cedrick Lopez were or had been members of the ABC gang. According to Arquero, Gobert claimed to be a Crip and said, “Fuck you, slobs.” Frick and Lopez heard Gobert say he was not afraid to die. According to Arquero, Gobert lifted his shirt and displayed a shiny object stuck in his pants. Frick and Lopez saw Gobert make a reaching movement, either lifting up his shirt or reaching inside his waistband. Arquero exclaimed, “Oh, shit. I think he’s got a gun.” The ABC’s rushed Gobert. Arquero estimated that Gobert was shot two minutes later.16 All three testified they did not see who the shooter was.
The defense argued that eyewitness descriptions of the shooter’s clothing did not match what defendant wore that night. Prosecution witness Lester Maliwat testified that defendant wore dark pants and a light blue shirt. Defense witnesses Marcus Freeman and Alfred Ward testified that the shooter wore a white hooded sweatshirt. However, Freeman said that the shooter put the sweatshirt on immediately before the shootings. Detective Larry Dejarnett, a prosecution rebuttal witness, testified that Ward told him the shooter wore a black hood and later said he was not sure what color the hood was.17
Defendant told Detective Spidle that at the time of the shootings he was “coming down” from two “lines” of “speed” he had taken earlier in the evening. It made him “kind of scared, nervous.” Asked how much alcohol he had consumed, defendant told Spidle, “maybe six,”18 but that he was only “buzzed” because “it takes a lot for me to get drunk.”
According to Eric Garcia, defendant showed him some speed that night and asked Garcia whether he wanted to use it with him. Garcia declined. He believed that defendant took some speed, but he was not certain.
Roger Boring testified that defendant “was drinking” that night, but that he did not know whether defendant had “a lot” to drink.
Dr. James Rosenberg, a psychiatrist who also specialized in psychopharmacology, testified for the defense. He had not tested or interviewed defendant. According to Dr. Rosenberg, methamphetamine use can cause very severe disturbances in thinking similar to those associated with paranoid psychosis or manic-depressive illness. “[P]robably the most characteristic would be ․ an irrational fear that someone is trying to hurt you.” A minor threat may be perceived as a very severe and life-threatening situation. Methamphetamine use is believed to produce these symptoms by releasing “adrenalin-type chemicals.” The half-life of methamphetamine is typically 11 hours. However, the effects of methamphetamine intoxication may last much longer, depending on the individual. In Rosenberg’s opinion, a hypothetical description based on the facts of this case was consistent with methamphetamine intoxication. While the interactive effect of methamphetamine and alcohol was not well developed in the medical literature, alcohol intoxication would be another factor affecting judgment and impulse control.
B. Penalty Phase
1. Prosecution Evidence
Jenny Hyon testified the bullet that struck her completely severed her spinal cord. As a consequence, she had difficulty breathing, could not tend to her bodily functions, and was confined to a wheelchair. She had no feeling below her chest, except for nearly constant pain in one arm that made sleeping difficult. She worried about who would care for her when her mother and younger sister could no longer do so. “What kills me the most” were the sacrifices her mother had made for her.
Carmen Vera was Ignacio Hernandez’s mother. Hernandez was 19 when he was murdered. He was a good boy, and a good student. He was not a gang member, nor did he use drugs. After he died, Vera received notice that he had been accepted to college in a mechanical engineering program. Hernandez’s murder deeply grieved Vera and her younger son, Emanuel. Ms. Vera went to a psychiatrist for three years. For two and a half years, unable to bring herself to tell Emanuel of his brother’s death, Vera told Emanuel that Hernandez was in New York with her family.
Carolyn Gobert was Dedrick Gobert’s mother. He was 19 or 20 when he was murdered. An aspiring actor, Dedrick Gobert was in three movies, television shows, and a commercial. Ms. Gobert’s whole life was changed by the murder. She was under psychiatric care, her attendance at work suffered, and she withdrew from her friends. Her younger son’s performance in school also suffered greatly.
2. Defense Evidence
The defense called witnesses who knew defendant during different periods of his life: (1) Defendant’s extended family from the Philippines who cared for him until he was eight; (2) relatives who met defendant when he was 14 and moved to California with his mother and stepfather; and (3) the surrogate families defendant joined when he left home.19 Defendant’s half sister Lilibeth, who first met him when he was eight, also testified.
Defendant’s mother Shirley grew up in the Philippines. When Shirley was 16 she gave birth to Lilibeth, but abandoned her to the care of her sister Pina. A year later, Shirley returned, pregnant with defendant. She consigned him to Pina’s care also. Two years later, Shirley returned for Lilibeth, but not defendant.
In addition to defendant, Pina’s family included her husband Raymond, their four children, and Raymond’s parents “Mamang” and “Tatai.” All of them traveled from the Philippines to testify on defendant’s behalf. The extended family provided a caring and affectionate home. Although they were not related to him by blood, Mamang and Tatai treated defendant as if he were their eldest grandson.
When defendant was eight, Shirley returned and took him to Guam, where her husband Robert Harris was in the United States military. Defendant was heartbroken at leaving the only family he had ever known.
According to Lilibeth, Shirley and Robert did not treat defendant like their other children. Shirley said that defendant was the product of rape.20 Shirley humiliated defendant by telling others of his bedwetting. She also held him up to ridicule for his tendency to twitch and have convulsions.
Robert was physically and emotionally abusive to Shirley and the children. Lilibeth feared Robert might kill her. He broke several of Shirley’s bones, and struck defendant with a belt. The police were often summoned. Shirley and the children once sought refuge in a domestic violence shelter. The children were aware that Shirley and Robert had extramarital affairs.
When defendant was in the seventh grade the family moved from Japan to California. In addition to Lilibeth, Robert’s mother, sister, and brother described defendant’s family life at that time. Robert remained physically abusive. Defendant cried often, missed his grandmother, and wanted to return to the Philippines. Shirley again abandoned her children, leaving for New York. Lilibeth visited Shirley there, but defendant was not welcome.
While still in his middle teens, defendant left home, finding shelter with the families of ABC gang members. Their mothers became surrogate parents to him. Two of them testified. They loved defendant as a son and he responded in kind, calling them “Mom” or “Mother.” He was respectful and helpful. He cooked, did yard work, and cared for the younger children. Defendant assisted at a residential care facility for Alzheimer’s patients managed by one of the women.
Dr. Jean F. Nidorf testified as a cultural mental health expert. She based her opinions on interviews with defendant, members of his family, and his friends; police reports; investigative materials prepared by the public defender’s office; a videotape and transcript of defendant’s confession to Detective Spidle; and other materials.
In Nidorf’s opinion, the ABC gang was a surrogate family, replacing the one defendant lost when he was taken from the Philippines. He lived with the families of gang members, ingratiating himself with their mothers. While defendant reported to Nidorf he felt welcomed, he moved frequently to avoid burdening their hospitality.
Within the gang defendant aspired to a role as peacemaker, moral conscience, and wise leader. He needed to feel important. He told Nidorf the gang members “needed me.” She concluded he was grandiose about his role.
Defendant related that he had been using speed almost every day. In Nidorf’s experience, many Asian and Southeast Asian young people are drawn to speed to overcome anxiety about feeling small and weak.
Nidorf thought defendant appeared to express remorse in his videotaped statement to Detective Spidle. “[H]e felt badly about what he had done. He didn’t want people to do that anymore. He didn’t want people to gangbang. He wanted them to go to church, and I saw that as remorse.” Based on her interviews with defendant, she concluded he “sincerely felt that what he did was wrong and that he regretted it.”
Valerie Dee Martin is on California Death Row for the murder of an elderly man. According to police reports Valerie Dee Martin, her sixteen year old son and his fourteen year old friend along with an ex convict planned the murder of the elderly man who would be found dead in the trunk of a car suffering from severe burns and trauma. Valerie Dee Martin would be charged and convicted of robbery and murder charges and would be sentenced to death
Valerie Dee Martin 2021 Information
Inmate Name
MARTIN, VALERIE DEE
CDCR Number
WA4277
Age
52
Admission Date
04/07/2010
Current Location
Central California Women’s Facility
Location Link
Directions
Parole Eligible Date (Month/Year)
CONDEMNED
Valerie Dee Martin Other News
Jennifer A. Mannix, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews and G. Tracey Letteau, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Defendant Ronald Ray Kupsch III appeals from a judgment of conviction entered after a jury found him guilty of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)) and found true the allegations that the murder was committed by means of lying in wait, during the course of a robbery, and during the course of a kidnapping (id., § 190.2, subd. (a)). Defendant was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime (id., § 182, subd. (a)(1)), with the jury finding one or more of the alleged overt acts to be true. In addition, the jury found him guilty of robbery (id., § 211), kidnapping to commit a crime (id., § 209, subd. (b)(1)), and arson causing great bodily injury (id., § 451, subd. (a)).
The trial court sentenced defendant to life without the possibility of parole for the murder and imposed a concurrent indeterminate term of 25 years to life in prison for the conspiracy. It imposed a concurrent indeterminate term of 15 years to life in prison for the kidnapping and a concurrent term of 9 years for the arson causing great bodily injury, and it stayed a determinate term of three years for the robbery. The court also imposed five $30 fines under Government Code section 70373; a $40 penalty assessment under Government Code section 76000.5, subdivision (a); a DNA penalty assessment of $40 under Government Code section 76104.6, subdivision (a)(1); and a $140 penalty assessment under Government Code section 76704.7.
On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on voluntary intoxication, abused its discretion in sentencing defendant to life without the possibility of parole, failed to stay the sentences for arson and kidnapping to commit robbery, and erred in imposing certain assessments. We agree that the assessments under Government Code sections 76000.5, subdivision (a), 76104.6, subdivision (a)(1), and 76104.7 must be stricken. In all other respects, we affirm.
In February of 2003, William Whiteside (Whiteside) was living in a mobile home with Valerie Dee Martin (Martin), defendant, who is her son, and defendant’s pregnant girlfriend, Jessica Buchanan (Buchanan). Whiteside and Martin worked at Antelope Valley Hospital. Defendant was a White supremacist and associated with other White supremacists, including Donovan Casey (Casey), Bradley Zoda (Zoda), Christopher Kennedy (Kennedy), and Stewart Smith (Smith). Whiteside’s racial background was non-White and defendant did not like him because of his race. Defendant, his mother, girlfriend, and other friends were all methamphetamine users.
On the morning of February 27, 2003, Zoda came over to Whiteside’s mobile home “to get high.” While Zoda, defendant, Buchanan, Valerie Dee Martin, and Kennedy were in a room talking and smoking methamphetamine, Martin said that she owed a $300 debt to “some Mexicans” for methamphetamine and if she did not pay, the “Mexicans” would come over. The group discussed options to repay the debt, including stealing cars. While Buchanan was in another room, Kennedy asked Zoda if he was “down with it,” and they discussed robbing Valerie Dee Martin’s “old man.” It was decided that they would go to the Antelope Valley Hospital parking lot, and Zoda would “jump” Whiteside and take his wallet when he got off work.
Around 9:00 p.m., Valerie Dee Martin drove Kennedy, Zoda, and defendant to the hospital. When they arrived and located Whiteside’s car, it was determined that the vehicle was too close to the street and there would be too many witnesses. Valerie Dee Martin suggested an alternate plan. She would drop the other three at “Suge’s”1 mobile home, call Whiteside and ask him to pick them up on his way home from work. The three were dropped off at Suge’s mobile home and smoked methamphetamine.
When Kennedy informed defendant and Zoda that Whiteside was near the mobile home, they left to meet him. Defendant carried a wooden stick and Kennedy carried a red aluminum bat. Kennedy entered the right rear passenger seat of Whiteside’s car, Zoda entered the passenger seat behind Whiteside, and defendant entered the right front passenger seat. Kennedy and defendant began striking Whiteside with the stick and bat. Zoda got out of the car, went to the driver’s window and began striking Whiteside with his fists. Whiteside was struck approximately 28 to 29 times and was rendered unconscious. Kennedy took Whiteside’s wallet; defendant and Kennedy then placed Whiteside in the car’s trunk. Kennedy drove them around until they got lost.
While they were driving around, they heard a noise coming from the trunk and realized that Whiteside had opened the trunk. Kennedy stopped the car; defendant got out and closed the trunk. Whiteside was able to open the trunk a second time. Kennedy got out of the car with defendant and he beat Whiteside with the stick. They closed the trunk and drove around in an effort to find a familiar landmark.
Defendant called his mother and asked her to bring gasoline. When Valerie Dee Martin arrived, Kennedy took the gasoline container and began to dump gasoline all over the car. Defendant lit the gasoline on fire. Defendant accidently burned Kennedy.
They returned to Whiteside’s mobile home. Defendant, Kennedy, and Zoda took off their clothes and placed them in a trash bag. Defendant took off his skater shoes with red laces and placed them in the trash bag. After awhile, everyone went to Kennedy’s residence, where they smoked some drugs.
Later the same morning, several deputies, including Kennedy’s uncle, a reserve deputy, came to the residence and arrested Kennedy for a probation violation. Defendant, Valerie Dee Martin, Zoda, and Buchanan left and drove to Rebecca King’s mobile home. Casey, a leader of a skinhead gang, was there.
After defendant told Casey what they had done to Whiteside, defendant and Casey left in Valerie Dee Martin’s car, and defendant obtained money from an ATM using Whiteside’s bank card. Upon their return, defendant gave Martin some money. Casey also accompanied Martin to a check cashing business, so she could wire someone money. Later that evening, defendant went to Smith’s house with Zoda. Defendant, driving Whiteside’s car, drove Smith to Whiteside’s mobile home. While at the mobile home, Smith said that they needed to leave because Whiteside was coming home. Defendant told Smith, “Bill’s not coming in. We killed him.” He also showed Smith his two “M” tattoos on the back of his neck.2
Defendant stayed in a motel for a few days. During that time, he told the details of the murder to Smith. At some point, defendant, Zoda and Smith went to a dumpster and burned the plastic bag containing the bloody clothes. Prior to burning the clothes, defendant had Zoda take his black skater shoes out of the bag. The shoes did not have any laces. When Zoda was arrested, he was wearing the shoes. When defendant was arrested, he was wearing the red shoe laces on a pair of white tennis shoes.3 Red was a sign of White supremacy.
On February 28, 2003, a burned-out vehicle was discovered. There was a lighter and a bat near the vehicle. Inside the trunk, Whiteside’s remains were discovered. Much of the body had burned away. A partially melted aluminum bat was recovered from the floorboard. An autopsy was conducted and the immediate cause of death was determined to be smoke inhalation and burns to the body. There were also fractures to Whiteside’s skull which would have been fatal in less than an hour.
When Whiteside failed to report to work, his former spouse, Tunda Curry (Curry), called Bank of America and inquired about any ATM transaction on their joint account. On March 3 or 4, Curry contacted Valerie Dee Martin and told her someone had used Whiteside’s ATM card, and photos of the transaction had been requested of the bank.4
After Valerie Dee Martin’s conversation with Curry, she called defendant in an effort to distance herself from any involvement in the murder. The conversation was recorded, and Martin acted like she had no idea what had happened to Whiteside. Defendant was upset because he knew that the police would have pictures from the ATM showing him making a withdrawal.
On March 10, 2003, defendant’s girlfriend, Buchanan, was interviewed by Detective Kennedy. She indicated that on February 27, 2003, she was in Whiteside’s trailer and heard defendant talking on the phone. Defendant stated that he needed to get $300 for his mother and “was going to go whack Bill to get the money.”
Buchanan said that she went to sleep and when she woke up, defendant, Kennedy, Zoda, and Valerie Dee Martin were inside the mobile home. They left and went to Kennedy’s home. They parked in the garage and a white pillowcase was taken out of the car. At one point, inside Kennedy’s house, she saw blood on defendant’s hands. She also saw blood on Kennedy’s arms.
Buchanan stated that three days later, defendant and Zoda went back for the white pillowcase and “torched” it. Thereafter, defendant got a swastika and two M’s tattooed on the back of his neck. The tattoo meant that defendant had killed someone of a different race.
Three to four days after the incident, defendant told Buchanan that he killed Whiteside by putting Whiteside in the back of Whiteside’s car and “beat[ing] the hell out of him.” Defendant gave her the details of the incident, including the beating, arson, and getting money from the ATM using Whiteside’s bank card. He said that he killed Whiteside because he never liked him, Whiteside yelled at his mother, Whiteside was of the “opposite race” and defendant was a skinhead. Buchanan also recounted details of the phone conversation defendant had with his mother.
Frequently Asked Questions
Valerie Dee Martin FAQ
Valerie Dee Martin 2021
Valerie Dee Martin is currently incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility the home of California Death Row For Women
Why Is Valerie Dee Martin On Death Row
Valerie Dee Martin was convicted of the torture and murder of an elderly man
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