SAN ANTONIO – A 37-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 99 years in prison for the shooting death of his common-law wife.
The same jury that convicted Gabriel Martinez on Wednesday for shooting Lori Lee Ortiz three times in May 2016 at the couple's Southwest Side home, handed down his sentence.
Prosecutors say Martinez also turned the gun on himself. But while Ortiz died on the way to the hospital, according to a paramedic who testified during the trial, Martinez survived his wound, though he will spend 30 years behind bars before he is even eligible for parole.
"He got what he deserved," said Fabian Flores, following the sentencing. "But there'll never be real justice because he took my sister."
During sentencing, Martinez and Ortiz's oldest child, Brianna Martinez, told the court she was standing for both of her parents and her two younger siblings.
"So I ask to be lenient, ‘cause he is my dad. And I also want the justice for my mom," Brianna Martinez said through tears.
Due to an enhancement for a previous felony conviction for possession of cocaine, Martinez was facing between 15 and 99 years or life in prison for the slaying. His attorney tried arguing that the murder happened under the influence of "sudden passion," which could have reduced the punishment range to between 5 and 99 years or life in prison.
"Maybe that's when Lori finally told him she was going to leave," said Martinez's attorney, Miguel Najera. "Maybe that's when Lori finally told him and was honest that 'I found someone else and I'm moving in with him.'"
However, the jury rejected that the murder was committed under "sudden passion arising from an adequate cause." When Judge Rangel read the jury's decision of a 99 year sentence, some of Ortiz's relatives gasped or exclaimed, and one even clapped.
"We just were ecstatic with some type of joy - a small amount of joy, even though it's a tragic situation - to know, 'Alright, he's never getting out.' Just like we're never getting our sister, our daughter, our whatever back," Flores said. "He's gone forever. He's pretty much going to pass away in there."
Martinez took the witness stand in his own defense during the trial and testified that he was the only person who could have shot Ortiz, but he didn't intend to kill her.
The defendant told jurors that he and Ortiz were arguing over pawning a gun and that he was trying to pull the rifle away from her when he was shot. Martinez said he blacked out after that and has no conscious memory of shooting her.
In the days before Ortiz's death, prosecutors pointed out that Martinez had sent about 50 messages on one day and 46 on another day asking Ortiz to come back home. They also brought up a text that Martinez sent saying he would "end it all."