Nathan Martinez rehearsed the murders of his stepmother and half-sister two days before they were actually killed, according to court testimony Wednesday.
Gripping his .22-caliber rifle, Martinez walked to the foot of his parents' empty bed and mumbled, "Boom, boom," then darted across the hall to the room of half-sister Alexis Martinez and repeated the action, testified Bryant Hamblen.Hamblen, a friend of Martinez since fourth grade, said he witnessed the chilling scene on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 28, less than 36 hours before Alexis and her mother, Lauren Martinez, were found shot to death in their Bluffdale home.
Nathan Martinez, 18, was charged with their slayings a day later after a nationwide manhunt ended peacefully with his arrest at a Nebraska motel. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
Martinez, dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit and wearing a leather and stone necklace, appeared in 3rd Circuit Court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing that will determine whether probable cause exists for a trial. Judge Philip Palmer was expected to made that determination late in the day.
Hamblen, who was the second witness in morning testimony, also said that Martinez admitted to him that he had killed his stepmother and half-sister.
"He said he shot Lexie first, once in her head, and then ran into Lauren's room. He said she sat up and looked at him and then he shot her and she fell face down into the bed," Hamblen said.
Deputies found both victims covered with blankets on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 30. Mar-ti-nez's father, Ben Martinez, and brother, Brent Martinez, had left for a hunting trip and were not in the home at the time of the shootings.
Hamblen said Nathan Martinez told him he pulled the blankets over the bodies "because he couldn't stand the smell."
The confession came as Nathan Martinez drove Hamblen in his dead stepmother's car first to Logan and then to Pocatello, Hamblen said in a Deseret News interview after the slayings. But Nathan Martinez also discussed killing other people as he fled the state - acts similar to killings depicted in the motion picture "Natural Born Killers."
The movie tells the story of a young couple, impervious to justice, on a nationwide killing spree.
Hamblen said Nathan Martinez saw the movie at least a half-dozen times.
Defense attorneys revealed their strategy early in the preliminary hearing, attacking the first witness, Salt Lake County deputy sheriff Jeff West.
They questioned him about possible contamination of evidence at the crime scene, eliciting testimony that:
- Deputies first on the scene did nothing to protect possible fingerprints on windows and doors and did not note any footprints leading to or from the house.
- The commanding sergeant on scene did not give special instructions to a responding paramedic to protect possible evidence.
- Deputies securing the scene did not patrol and could not see the rear entrances to the home.
- West had never responded to a homicide call and was last trained about murder scenes several years ago.