Supporters say Johnny Martinez, who has spent decades in prison, is a brilliant and caring man, but prosecutors call him “murderous.”
Johnny Martinez, shown in 2018, has supporters pushing for his release on bail, but others insist he’s a danger to the public. To those in his corner, Johnny Martinez is a brilliant, caring, jailhouse lawyer who has unfairly spent his entire adult life behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
The bail motion notes, “Mr. Martinez is not alleged to have personally committed any of the violent offenses” alleged in the indictment. Martinez, known by the moniker “Crow,” was convicted in 1994 of taking part in a brawl that ended in the stabbing death of Ricky Michaels after a pickup basketball game in Fullerton. Under the law at the time, Martinez was considered as accountable as the actual killer, under the theory that Michaels’ death was a “natural and probable consequence” of the fight.
The charges against Martinez were dropped by a judge for lack of probable cause, court records say. Also, the Public Defender’s Office revealed that an Orange County sheriff’s deputy who served as a gang expert had lied in a related case. The Rios killing is now a part of the federal indictment against Martinez.
Martinez’s mother, Dolores A. Canales, is a reformed five-time felon who now sits on the nine-member Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commission, appointed by Supervisor Janice Hahn. The commission was formed in 2020 to help rebuild the county’s troubled Probation Department, where “Johnny spent virtually all of his time helping others with their legal problems. He spent his days combing through transcripts and drafting legal petitions to challenge illegal sentences, issues of guilt and unlawful prison conditions,” McCarthy wrote in a letter to Judge John D. Early, supporting bail. “If that isn’t impressive enough, he never charged anyone for his help. He helped others out of Christian faith.
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