David Frank Martinez charged with first-degree murder in death of Elaine Masias
By JUAN ESPINOSA
The first week of the trial of David Frank Martinez for the murder of Elaine DeLeon Masias ended Friday (July 11, 2015) with a hearing on the defense’s request to use “an alternate suspect defense.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Tim O’Shea said he would rule on the request Monday morning before the trial resumes.
Masias died June 28, 2024 after she was shot while sitting inside the Veterans Tavern with her husband Steve Masias. The bullet that struck her traveled through an open door to the bar’s outside patio. No witnesses presented in the trial’s first days saw the shooter who fired a total of 12 rounds into the neighborhood tavern.
A second woman, Rania Vigil-Sandoval, was shot in her left hand. Her injury was not life-threatening.
In his opening remarks, prosecuting attorney David Dingess told the jury that the evidence points to one man, Martinez.
“Evidence will show David Martinez caused the death of Elaine Masias,” Dingess said. The evidence shows that a white Ford pickup belonging to Martinez was seen in surveillance video from several businesses in the vicinity just prior to and after the shooting.
In one of the videos, the suspect vehicle is seen parking on Mesa Avenue. A poorly lit figure is seen exiting the truck and entering an alley that leads to a fence behind the tavern, over which Dingess said the shooter fired the dozen .45 caliber bullets. The shooting took place outside of the video frame, but the sound of the shots can be heard on the video. Seconds later, the dark figure is seen running to the vehicle and driving away.
Dingess said Martinez was linked to the shooting because his ex-girlfriend, Cheryl Rampa, was inside the tavern that night. According to the arrest affidavit for Martinez, police theorize that Rampa was the intended target of the shooting.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Michael Stuzynski, planted the seed for the alternative suspect defense. He said that a .45 caliber handgun found in a search of Martinez’s truck days later did not match the spent shell casings found at the scene.
Stuzynski said evidence will show the casings were fired from a .45 caliber handgun that police confiscated in 2019 in connection to an unrelated investigation. When no charges were filed in that case, the gun was returned to its owner, Julian Saccomanno, 3926 Sheffield Lane. That gun has since gone missing.
Stuzynski said a 19-year-old, who was killed on July 30, 2024 in shootout with police, had “confessed” to another man that he was responsible for the shooting at Veterans Tavern.
“Police have no interest in solving this case,” Stuzynski told the jury. “They are going to ask you to twist faulty evidence to cover their bad investigation.”
Following the opening remarks, the prosecution presented numerous witnesses, surveillance video, forensic evidence, search warrant results and eye-witness testimony linking Martinez to the crime. Most of the testimony has been predictable, but there have been a few surprises.
Martinez initially told police he didn’t own any guns, but a .45 caliber handgun was found in a search of Martinez’s truck. One surprise is that the handgun found is not the one that fired the 12 rounds at the scene of the crime. However, the casings found at the scene were linked through forensic testing to have been fired by another .45 caliber handgun confiscated by police in 2019. While that weapon was in police possession, it had been tested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s firearms section.
CBI technician Amos Webb testified that microscopic markings on the 12 casings found at the scene matched the tests performed in 2019 on Saccomanno’s .45-caliber auto Springfield XD. Shelly Saccomanno testified Friday that her ex-husband’s .45 went missing in 2022 and “We haven’t seen the missing gun since.”
In her testimony, Rampa told the court she was surprised to learn from police investigators that they believe she was the target of the shooting. Under cross-examination, she admitted being a reluctant witness.
“Do you feel police were pressing you to implicate Mr. Martinez?” asked co-defense attorney Beau Worthington.
“Yes,” Rampa said.
“When you failed to tell them what they wanted to hear, did they treat you differently? Worthington asked.
“Yes, they treated me indifferently and didn’t come back.”
In Rampa’s testimony, it was determined that she and Martinez lived together for almost two and a half years and had broken up a few weeks before the shooting. On the day of the shooting, she testified, she had gone to retrieve her personal belongings from a car parked at Martinez’s residence.
Initially, Rampa said she could not remember texting Martinez since their breakup, but after she was shown printouts of numerous texts between them, she remembered. The text messages were exchanged between June 24 and June 26m 2024.
Worthington characterized the texts to be argumentative. “Was he critical of you going out to drink?”
“Of course,” Rampa responded.
The last of the texts was sent at 1:35 p.m., the day of the shooting. Worthington asked if Martinez had texted her after the shooting.
“I blocked him after that,” Rampa said.
Police detective Joseph Cardona testified earlier in the trial about interviewing Martinez before he was arrested and confiscating his phone. Using computer software, he was able to “review the phone in its entirety.” On one text message, Martinez acknowledged owning two .45 caliber handguns.
Cardona told the court that the software not only shows the contents of a phone, it also can retrieve some deleted messages.
Under cross examination, Cardona was asked if there were any messages involving Cheryl (Rampa) on Martinez’s phone. Cardona said there were and none of the messages were “threatening.” The detective added, “All messages (involving Rampa) were deleted at 3:21 p.m. on June 28 (prior to the shooting).”
None of the testimony or evidence showed any connection between Martinez and Masias, or that they knew each other. It appears that she was an innocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The trial continues Monday (July 14) with Judge O’Shea’s ruling on the defense’s request to present evidence of an alternate suspect.