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I've been extremely busy lately, with work & prepping for various trips & attending conferences. My latest trip was out to CA to see my younger sister graduate college. This was only a month after learning of my godmother's murder, who lives in the same town. While there, I visited my godsister (my godmother's daughter) & drove by the house where my godmother was killed. I learned some more information about the event while there that I wanted to document before I forget it.
The woman who killed my godmother was named Leticia Daisy Martinez. She was 28 years old, had 4 young children, and had a blood alcohol level of almost double the legal limit at 9:30 AM on a Sunday morning. She had a suspended drivers license and she was driving an SUV with 3 passengers.
On that morning, Martinez was driving south on Snell Ave. when she had a minor fender-bender with another vehicle. I'm told it was barely a hit at all, but she immediately hit the gas and took off, speeding down the road. In one of the news articles, some commenter had the gall to try and defend this bitch by calling her a "poor young mother of 4" who was "threatened" by the guy she hit, a guy with road rage who got out of his car, screamed obscenities at her, and physically threatened her. Martinez, the defender claims, was running for her life. The guy she hit (the defender goes on to say) then pursued her in a high-speed chase that was the real cause for Martinez's following collisions.
This is not true. No one got out of any cars, she dinged some guy and took off, presumably because she was driving under the influence and on a suspended license, and therefore did not want any official or legal record of her collision. He followed after her to get her license plate number (which I completely support), and all reports say he followed at a fast, but safe, speed, while Martinez drove more than 70 miles an hour down a 45-mile-per-hour zone. Even if she *had* been threatened by this guy (and further down, you'll see why that's unlikely), her following actions condemn her and relieve the pursuer, IMO, of all responsibility in the event.
So she sped down the road at nearly double the speed limit, then attempted to make a left-hand turn, where she lost control of her SUV and it hopped the curb of the corner she was trying to turn. It went up on the curb, up over the 2-foot retaining wall, across the lawn, and into the corner of my godmother's house, where she was gardening in the flowerbed that lined the house's foundation.
The collision took out the entire front room. She hit a house hard enough to punch a hole right through it. She then reversed out of the house, back off the lawn, down the curb, back onto the street she had just come from, and continued in the original direction she was travelling in before she made her failed left-turn. By this time, my godmother's daughter & grandson had time to come out of the house and see Martinez clearly enough to give one of the best witness descriptions the police said they had ever heard. They also had time to see my godmother lying broken, half in the rubble of the house, half in the flowerbed, with her sock and shoe lying alone in the rubble. The SUV was so banged up, that it struggled and did not seem to want to keep running, but the driver managed to coax it into moving anyway. Martinez went another 2 blocks and made another left turn, successfully this time, and sped through a residential neighborhood until the road curved to the left, where she lost control again. This time, she smacked into a car that was parked on the side of the road, in front of a house, where the owner had just finished washing and waxing it and had, only moments before, moved to the sidewalk-side of the car to finish drying that side.
This time, the SUV did not continue running. Martinez and her passengers got out of the SUV and all took off running on foot in different directions. Back at my godmother's house, the original victim, the one who had pursued Martinez, supposedly instigating this "high-speed chase" that resulted in the murder of my godmother, he had caught up to Martinez at my godmother's house, gotten out of the car, and rushed to my godmother's aid. When Martinez left the scene of her second collision, this Good Samaritan took off after her, running on foot with a handful of other neighbors who had by then gathered at the scene of the crime.
These neighbors continued chasing the SUV the several blocks until the third collision, at which time the SUV did not move again. Martinez and all 3 of her passengers got out of the vehicle and ran in different directions. The pursuing neighbors, joined by onlookers at the third collision site, continued the chase, blocking all 4 from escaping.
At this point, the police had had time to catch up and took over very quickly. The neighbors who had blocked Martinez and her passengers did not have to hold them very long, I'm told, and all 4 were taken into custody. Meanwhile, the original victim of the first collision ran back to my godmother's house to continue giving assistance. My godsister tells me that he remained there throughout the entire ordeal, offering whatever assistance he could and generally being a kind, compassionate, decent human being.
Although it is not only possible, but likely, that individuals with road rage can also be kind and decent human beings, this man's actions do not support the picture of a mean, angry, threatening individual. He did not chase down Martinez and beat her to a pulp (like I would have liked to do) and he did not shout obscenities at her (as would have definitely been warranted by the time he caught her, if not at the beginning). Instead, he merely chased down a criminal fleeing from justice, turned her over to the police, and immediately returned to assist the other victims and their families.
My godsisters were not given much information after the murder to keep track of the legal proceedings. So they did an internet search for her name, hoping to find a case number or any other information that would give them access to the public databases of criminal proceedings. No such luck, but they did find that this same woman, this "poor young mother of four" has 4, count them, FOUR prior convictions against her in four other states - I believe all traffic or DUI related. I am told that they are certain it is the same woman, not some other woman/women with the same name.
Martinez was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on charges of manslaughter, two counts of felony hit-and-run, felony driving-under-the-influence (DUI), misdemeanor hit-and-run, and misdemeanor driving-while-unlicensed. I am told that she will take a plea bargain, get a maximum of 12 years (only if found guilty on all charges), and be out in 6 on probation. My godsister believes that nothing she can say or do will change this outcome, and so will not testify or contribute in any way to the upcoming criminal battle. This would not be my choice. She may be right, that her actions will not increase Martinez's sentence, but I would take every opportunity I could to make sure Martinez felt the full weight of her actions and that others were made aware of the consequences of drunk driving to prevent some other family's loss - as I am doing by this public journaling and making comments on the online news articles about the story.
The Good Samaritan, who was the first collision victim that chased after Martinez when she fled the first crime scene, is also being brought up on charges for chasing her. When the DA called my godsister to tell her to testify against him, she told the DA that he better not put her on the stand because he would not like what she had to say. Again, not a choice I would make. I would have loved to agree to testify, only to get on the stand and, under oath, swear to the helpfulness of the victim, and publicly and legally voice my support for his actions.
Yes, it is true that his pursuit might have contributed to Martinez picking that specific corner to turn left at, and/or to the exact time it happened, which resulted in the eventual murder of my godmother. But it is also true that Martinez had a blood alcohol level of .15 and no legal drivers license when she chose to get behind the wheel of an SUV on a Sunday morning, and it is true that she chose to speed away from the scene of an accident that *she caused*. There is no guarantee that, if the driver had not pursued her, she would not still have chosen to make that exact left-hand turn at that exact time.
His property had been damaged through no fault of his own, and I believe he had a right, and even an obligation, to follow after her and get her license plate number, to report her to the proper authorities. Since she was fleeing from her own crime scene without instigation from her first victim, it is not only possible, but likely, that she would have caused some kind of accident whether that man followed her or not.
I have often followed behind someone driving irresponsibly while calling the police to report them, including a woman with an un-seatbelted child literally running back and forth across the backseat of the car, who was driving erratically and even drove over, not just a curb, but a 3-foot high rock on that curb, before police pulled her over. She actually drove for 6 blocks with the lights and sirens on behind her before pulling over, and the only reason she eventually pulled over was because she stopped for gas. She never even knew the cops were behind her. For the safety of that child and everyone else on the road, I believe I did the right thing in following her and reporting her, and I believe the first victim in this tragedy also did the right thing in following behind Martinez.
Her speeding was not a result of being chased, it was a result of her fleeing the scene. She was not driving responsibly and only lost control after a madman pursued her. She was already drunk, already driving recklessly, and already speeding. She smashed into my godmother's house at more than 70 miles per hour. She backed out of the house and took off speeding again. She smashed into a parked car with no other vehicles following her and when her vehicle would no longer serve as her getaway car, she fled on foot. These are not the actions of a frightened, but decent person. These are the actions of a selfish criminal with no concern for how her actions affect anyone else. These are the actions of a self-centered bitch who is more concerned with getting away with murder than with facing the consequences of her poor decisions, and who is in the habit of making poor decisions to begin with.
While I was in town, my sister and I went dancing with a whole bunch of her friends, to celebrate her graduation. My sister not only designated a sober driver (me), but offered out my driving services to any and all of her friends who wanted to drink but did not have a driver of their own. All of my close friends (those with whom I socialize often enough to know these things) either designate drivers or stay the night at the house where the party is taking place. My last giant bash actually had a breathalizer test, and my guests surrendered their car keys before drinking and did not get them back until they passed the test. I do not drink, and I tend not to look very favorably on those who drink regularly, but there is a way to drink responsibly. Many towns offer free cab service to prevent drunk driving. Most of my friends, if they do not have someone who is always sober, like me, at least rotate the designated driver so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy the alcohol and yet still have a safe way home.
There is no excuse for drunk driving. "I'm not drunk, I can handle it" is not good enough. By the time we left the nightclub, my sister was actually mostly sober. But mostly sober is not the same thing as sober, and she knows better. I drove home. I have lost 6 friends or family members to driving accidents - 3 of them before I graduated high school. I also dated a First Responder, which is someone with medical training (EMT, doctor, nurse, firefighter, etc.) who volunteers to be obligated by law to respond to any and all emergency situations that he comes across just by happenstance (it's a legal thing that covers the First Responder because many so-called Good Samaritans can be sued if the person they help doesn't make it, & there's a mountain of paperwork a FR has to file when he responds to an accident). I can't even count the number of car crashes I have stopped at, just because I happened to be in the car when my then-boyfriend spotted a crash and pulled over.
I've seen car fires, upside-down cars, cars balanced precariously on the center divide, people ejected from cars, motorcycle accidents ... you name it, I've seen it. I've helped to immobilize an accident victim's head to prevent spinal injury until the paramedics arrive. I've patched up cuts and lacerations, I've helped to pop limbs back into joints, I've seen parts of the body that should never see the light of day. And the vast majority of these cases were preventable. They were from drunk driving, or tailgating, or showing off. Hell, I've even participated in my share of stupid stunts, one of which resulted in me rolling my car down a hill!
One night, while driving very late down an interstate highway with very little traffic, my First Responder then-boyfriend came across a mattress lying in the middle of the highway. It was dark, there were no streetlights, and not enough traffic to illuminate the mattress, so he nearly missed it. He pulled over, backed the car towards the mattress, aimed his car sideways and turned his headlights on to show other drivers where it was. Before he could remove the mattress himself, he saw a set of headlights coming down the road. Even with his own lights trained on the mattress, the car didn't see it until he was right on top of it and he swerved to avoid it.
That's when my then-boyfriend saw the car following him. On an empty highway, late at night, this SUV was tailgating so close that my then-boyfriend couldn't even see the vehicle's headlights until the car ahead of it swerved out of the way. Because of the speed they were travelling, and how close he was following, and how much time it takes for people to react, the driver of the SUV did not see the mattress in time and he hit it in mid-swerve, causing his SUV to lose control and roll over onto its roof.
My then-boyfriend ran over to it and began the head-spine immobilization process, since he was unable to remove the man from the car by himself, while he waited for paramedics to arrive. The man was conscious, and my then-boyfriend kept up a steady conversation with him to keep him conscious, keep him from panicking, and to better assess his condition. We found out that the man had several children, so my then-boyfriend took the opportunity to suggest that the man drive a safer following distance from now on, so that the children do not end up losing their father. Rather than feel remorse for his actions, the man actually got belligerent and defensive and blamed the driver ahead of him for causing his accident. He refused to take any responsibility for driving too close to see an obstacle to respond in time.
He reminds me of Martinez.
But, while we're never going to stop people from talking on the phone while driving or eating a Big Mac while running late, there are a few things that are more likely than others to have a high probability of resulting in a serious accident. Don't drive while tired. Don't drive while texting. Don't tailgate. And don't drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs (illegal, prescription, or over the counter). I don't care how well you THINK you can function, I guarantee that you do not function as well as you think you do. By definition, your abilities are impaired, so you are not able to judge your own functionality while under the influence. YOU DO NOT DRIVE AS WELL AS YOU THINK YOU DO, even sober. So don't do it while drunk.
There is no excuse for drunk driving.
The woman who killed my godmother was named Leticia Daisy Martinez. She was 28 years old, had 4 young children, and had a blood alcohol level of almost double the legal limit at 9:30 AM on a Sunday morning. She had a suspended drivers license and she was driving an SUV with 3 passengers.
On that morning, Martinez was driving south on Snell Ave. when she had a minor fender-bender with another vehicle. I'm told it was barely a hit at all, but she immediately hit the gas and took off, speeding down the road. In one of the news articles, some commenter had the gall to try and defend this bitch by calling her a "poor young mother of 4" who was "threatened" by the guy she hit, a guy with road rage who got out of his car, screamed obscenities at her, and physically threatened her. Martinez, the defender claims, was running for her life. The guy she hit (the defender goes on to say) then pursued her in a high-speed chase that was the real cause for Martinez's following collisions.
This is not true. No one got out of any cars, she dinged some guy and took off, presumably because she was driving under the influence and on a suspended license, and therefore did not want any official or legal record of her collision. He followed after her to get her license plate number (which I completely support), and all reports say he followed at a fast, but safe, speed, while Martinez drove more than 70 miles an hour down a 45-mile-per-hour zone. Even if she *had* been threatened by this guy (and further down, you'll see why that's unlikely), her following actions condemn her and relieve the pursuer, IMO, of all responsibility in the event.
So she sped down the road at nearly double the speed limit, then attempted to make a left-hand turn, where she lost control of her SUV and it hopped the curb of the corner she was trying to turn. It went up on the curb, up over the 2-foot retaining wall, across the lawn, and into the corner of my godmother's house, where she was gardening in the flowerbed that lined the house's foundation.
The collision took out the entire front room. She hit a house hard enough to punch a hole right through it. She then reversed out of the house, back off the lawn, down the curb, back onto the street she had just come from, and continued in the original direction she was travelling in before she made her failed left-turn. By this time, my godmother's daughter & grandson had time to come out of the house and see Martinez clearly enough to give one of the best witness descriptions the police said they had ever heard. They also had time to see my godmother lying broken, half in the rubble of the house, half in the flowerbed, with her sock and shoe lying alone in the rubble. The SUV was so banged up, that it struggled and did not seem to want to keep running, but the driver managed to coax it into moving anyway. Martinez went another 2 blocks and made another left turn, successfully this time, and sped through a residential neighborhood until the road curved to the left, where she lost control again. This time, she smacked into a car that was parked on the side of the road, in front of a house, where the owner had just finished washing and waxing it and had, only moments before, moved to the sidewalk-side of the car to finish drying that side.
This time, the SUV did not continue running. Martinez and her passengers got out of the SUV and all took off running on foot in different directions. Back at my godmother's house, the original victim, the one who had pursued Martinez, supposedly instigating this "high-speed chase" that resulted in the murder of my godmother, he had caught up to Martinez at my godmother's house, gotten out of the car, and rushed to my godmother's aid. When Martinez left the scene of her second collision, this Good Samaritan took off after her, running on foot with a handful of other neighbors who had by then gathered at the scene of the crime.
These neighbors continued chasing the SUV the several blocks until the third collision, at which time the SUV did not move again. Martinez and all 3 of her passengers got out of the vehicle and ran in different directions. The pursuing neighbors, joined by onlookers at the third collision site, continued the chase, blocking all 4 from escaping.
At this point, the police had had time to catch up and took over very quickly. The neighbors who had blocked Martinez and her passengers did not have to hold them very long, I'm told, and all 4 were taken into custody. Meanwhile, the original victim of the first collision ran back to my godmother's house to continue giving assistance. My godsister tells me that he remained there throughout the entire ordeal, offering whatever assistance he could and generally being a kind, compassionate, decent human being.
Although it is not only possible, but likely, that individuals with road rage can also be kind and decent human beings, this man's actions do not support the picture of a mean, angry, threatening individual. He did not chase down Martinez and beat her to a pulp (like I would have liked to do) and he did not shout obscenities at her (as would have definitely been warranted by the time he caught her, if not at the beginning). Instead, he merely chased down a criminal fleeing from justice, turned her over to the police, and immediately returned to assist the other victims and their families.
My godsisters were not given much information after the murder to keep track of the legal proceedings. So they did an internet search for her name, hoping to find a case number or any other information that would give them access to the public databases of criminal proceedings. No such luck, but they did find that this same woman, this "poor young mother of four" has 4, count them, FOUR prior convictions against her in four other states - I believe all traffic or DUI related. I am told that they are certain it is the same woman, not some other woman/women with the same name.
Martinez was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on charges of manslaughter, two counts of felony hit-and-run, felony driving-under-the-influence (DUI), misdemeanor hit-and-run, and misdemeanor driving-while-unlicensed. I am told that she will take a plea bargain, get a maximum of 12 years (only if found guilty on all charges), and be out in 6 on probation. My godsister believes that nothing she can say or do will change this outcome, and so will not testify or contribute in any way to the upcoming criminal battle. This would not be my choice. She may be right, that her actions will not increase Martinez's sentence, but I would take every opportunity I could to make sure Martinez felt the full weight of her actions and that others were made aware of the consequences of drunk driving to prevent some other family's loss - as I am doing by this public journaling and making comments on the online news articles about the story.
The Good Samaritan, who was the first collision victim that chased after Martinez when she fled the first crime scene, is also being brought up on charges for chasing her. When the DA called my godsister to tell her to testify against him, she told the DA that he better not put her on the stand because he would not like what she had to say. Again, not a choice I would make. I would have loved to agree to testify, only to get on the stand and, under oath, swear to the helpfulness of the victim, and publicly and legally voice my support for his actions.
Yes, it is true that his pursuit might have contributed to Martinez picking that specific corner to turn left at, and/or to the exact time it happened, which resulted in the eventual murder of my godmother. But it is also true that Martinez had a blood alcohol level of .15 and no legal drivers license when she chose to get behind the wheel of an SUV on a Sunday morning, and it is true that she chose to speed away from the scene of an accident that *she caused*. There is no guarantee that, if the driver had not pursued her, she would not still have chosen to make that exact left-hand turn at that exact time.
His property had been damaged through no fault of his own, and I believe he had a right, and even an obligation, to follow after her and get her license plate number, to report her to the proper authorities. Since she was fleeing from her own crime scene without instigation from her first victim, it is not only possible, but likely, that she would have caused some kind of accident whether that man followed her or not.
I have often followed behind someone driving irresponsibly while calling the police to report them, including a woman with an un-seatbelted child literally running back and forth across the backseat of the car, who was driving erratically and even drove over, not just a curb, but a 3-foot high rock on that curb, before police pulled her over. She actually drove for 6 blocks with the lights and sirens on behind her before pulling over, and the only reason she eventually pulled over was because she stopped for gas. She never even knew the cops were behind her. For the safety of that child and everyone else on the road, I believe I did the right thing in following her and reporting her, and I believe the first victim in this tragedy also did the right thing in following behind Martinez.
Her speeding was not a result of being chased, it was a result of her fleeing the scene. She was not driving responsibly and only lost control after a madman pursued her. She was already drunk, already driving recklessly, and already speeding. She smashed into my godmother's house at more than 70 miles per hour. She backed out of the house and took off speeding again. She smashed into a parked car with no other vehicles following her and when her vehicle would no longer serve as her getaway car, she fled on foot. These are not the actions of a frightened, but decent person. These are the actions of a selfish criminal with no concern for how her actions affect anyone else. These are the actions of a self-centered bitch who is more concerned with getting away with murder than with facing the consequences of her poor decisions, and who is in the habit of making poor decisions to begin with.
While I was in town, my sister and I went dancing with a whole bunch of her friends, to celebrate her graduation. My sister not only designated a sober driver (me), but offered out my driving services to any and all of her friends who wanted to drink but did not have a driver of their own. All of my close friends (those with whom I socialize often enough to know these things) either designate drivers or stay the night at the house where the party is taking place. My last giant bash actually had a breathalizer test, and my guests surrendered their car keys before drinking and did not get them back until they passed the test. I do not drink, and I tend not to look very favorably on those who drink regularly, but there is a way to drink responsibly. Many towns offer free cab service to prevent drunk driving. Most of my friends, if they do not have someone who is always sober, like me, at least rotate the designated driver so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy the alcohol and yet still have a safe way home.
There is no excuse for drunk driving. "I'm not drunk, I can handle it" is not good enough. By the time we left the nightclub, my sister was actually mostly sober. But mostly sober is not the same thing as sober, and she knows better. I drove home. I have lost 6 friends or family members to driving accidents - 3 of them before I graduated high school. I also dated a First Responder, which is someone with medical training (EMT, doctor, nurse, firefighter, etc.) who volunteers to be obligated by law to respond to any and all emergency situations that he comes across just by happenstance (it's a legal thing that covers the First Responder because many so-called Good Samaritans can be sued if the person they help doesn't make it, & there's a mountain of paperwork a FR has to file when he responds to an accident). I can't even count the number of car crashes I have stopped at, just because I happened to be in the car when my then-boyfriend spotted a crash and pulled over.
I've seen car fires, upside-down cars, cars balanced precariously on the center divide, people ejected from cars, motorcycle accidents ... you name it, I've seen it. I've helped to immobilize an accident victim's head to prevent spinal injury until the paramedics arrive. I've patched up cuts and lacerations, I've helped to pop limbs back into joints, I've seen parts of the body that should never see the light of day. And the vast majority of these cases were preventable. They were from drunk driving, or tailgating, or showing off. Hell, I've even participated in my share of stupid stunts, one of which resulted in me rolling my car down a hill!
One night, while driving very late down an interstate highway with very little traffic, my First Responder then-boyfriend came across a mattress lying in the middle of the highway. It was dark, there were no streetlights, and not enough traffic to illuminate the mattress, so he nearly missed it. He pulled over, backed the car towards the mattress, aimed his car sideways and turned his headlights on to show other drivers where it was. Before he could remove the mattress himself, he saw a set of headlights coming down the road. Even with his own lights trained on the mattress, the car didn't see it until he was right on top of it and he swerved to avoid it.
That's when my then-boyfriend saw the car following him. On an empty highway, late at night, this SUV was tailgating so close that my then-boyfriend couldn't even see the vehicle's headlights until the car ahead of it swerved out of the way. Because of the speed they were travelling, and how close he was following, and how much time it takes for people to react, the driver of the SUV did not see the mattress in time and he hit it in mid-swerve, causing his SUV to lose control and roll over onto its roof.
My then-boyfriend ran over to it and began the head-spine immobilization process, since he was unable to remove the man from the car by himself, while he waited for paramedics to arrive. The man was conscious, and my then-boyfriend kept up a steady conversation with him to keep him conscious, keep him from panicking, and to better assess his condition. We found out that the man had several children, so my then-boyfriend took the opportunity to suggest that the man drive a safer following distance from now on, so that the children do not end up losing their father. Rather than feel remorse for his actions, the man actually got belligerent and defensive and blamed the driver ahead of him for causing his accident. He refused to take any responsibility for driving too close to see an obstacle to respond in time.
He reminds me of Martinez.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. Driving is operating a dangerous piece of machinery that requires quick reflexes and a basic understanding of physics. Most people who drive do not have those quick reflexes or that basic understanding of physics. And then they go and impair their reflexes further, by drinking before driving, by driving while tired, by driving too close to other vehicles to see obstacles, by talking on the phone, by texting, by putting on makeup, by eating, by messing with the radio, and by doing a dozen other things. I've been known to do a few of these things too - everyone has their moments of selfishness where they think their privilege trumps the safety of other people.
But, while we're never going to stop people from talking on the phone while driving or eating a Big Mac while running late, there are a few things that are more likely than others to have a high probability of resulting in a serious accident. Don't drive while tired. Don't drive while texting. Don't tailgate. And don't drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs (illegal, prescription, or over the counter). I don't care how well you THINK you can function, I guarantee that you do not function as well as you think you do. By definition, your abilities are impaired, so you are not able to judge your own functionality while under the influence. YOU DO NOT DRIVE AS WELL AS YOU THINK YOU DO, even sober. So don't do it while drunk.
There is no excuse for drunk driving.
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Date: 6/1/11 07:31 am (UTC)From:That said, recently I asked a friend to do a favor that involved driving. I had forgotten he'd had a drink earlier that night, until he said no, because he'd been drinking. I appreciated that. I wouldn't have asked if I had remembered, but he has enough sense that he's not going to drive after he's been drinking. I like that I can trust my friends about such things.