DENVER — A Denver man who has been serving a life sentence for the past 26 years after he was convicted of killing a 4-month-old baby in 1998 had his conviction erased Tuesday after new evidence presented by the defense concluded the infant died of pneumonia.
Stephen Martinez, 58, was sentenced in 2000 to life in prison after prosecutors made the case that 4-month-old Heather Mares died after she was violently shaken by Martinez to stop the child from crying. Speaking before a judge Tuesday, a family member of the victim said Martinez inflicted a “complex skull fracture” that led to Heather’s death.
Reporting from our partners at The Denver Post states that further investigation into Heather’s death showed that the baby had ruptured blood vessels in her eyes, brain bleeding and swelling. Martinez would later confess to shaking Heather and slamming her into a crib — a confession he later recanted and which his attorneys say was false.
But doctors who recently reviewed Heather’s case found her lungs were severely damaged to the point that “she had almost no air,” according to a petition from the defense reviewed by the Post. Those findings could have caused the symptoms that were previously attributed to abuse, the experts told the defense.
“I understand that today is a difficult day and that decisions made in this courtroom are decisions you’ll have to carry with you the rest of your life,” Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen told family members in court Tuesday. “This is not an easy decision,” he reiterated, as he extended his sympathies for the family.
Luxen said the court was guided by Rule 35(c), a criminal procedure that allows a person convicted of a crime to challenge their conviction if they can show their sentence was fundamentally flawed. The judge said Martinez exercised his rights under Rule 35(c) “a number of times” but those prior motions were denied.
The judge went on to say that new evidence discovered in the case “would have likely changed the result” of Martinez’s trial in early 2000, before ordering that his conviction be vacated.
Tuesday’s development in Martinez’s case follows years of extensive investigation and advocacy led by the Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado Boulder Law School, according to his defense attorneys. The project provides free legal services to people serving time in Colorado prisons for crimes they didn’t commit.
In a statement, Denver District Attorney John Walsh said his office was obliged to dismiss the case after retaining independent experts whose opinion largely confirmed those of the defense experts and after the Denver medical examiner who conducted Heather’s autopsy in 1998 recently acknowledged a reasonable doubt about Heather’s cause of death.
"I want to emphasize that there was no misconduct on the part of the prosecutors or detectives who worked on the case in the late 1990s," he said. "This is simply an example of the criminal justice system being willing and able to reassess a case when necessary."
“Don’t let this animal out on the street”
Speaking before the court Tuesday, several of Heather’s relatives took to the podium to plead with the judge to not vacate Martinez’s conviction. Andre Mares, one of Heather’s relatives, told Judge Luxen that releasing Martinez “sends a dangerous message that violence against the most vulnerable can eventually be forgiven.”
Kim Estrada, Heather’s mother, said her life was stopped 27 years ago when she lost Heather and that Martinez has “shown no remorse... about taking our daughter.”
“I beg you, don’t let him out; we don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve it as a mother,” Estrada said. "Don’t let this animal out on the street — he doesn’t deserve it, and neither do we."
Martinez's case is the latest in a number of defendants whose convictions have been overturned over the past 30 years due to evolving scientific understanding on Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Per the National Registry of Exonerations, at least 41 parents and caregivers in 18 states convicted based on evidence of SBS, also commonly known as Abusive Head Trauma, have been exonerated since 1989.
Last year, New Jersey became the first state in the U.S. to bar expert testimony on SBS/AHT from the courtroom when there is no other evidence of trauma.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.