BULLETIN
After less than five hours of deliberation on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, jurors found David Frank Martinez guilty of first degree murder in the death of Elaine DeLeon Munoz Masias and attempted murder of Rania Vigil-Sandoval. Both women were shot at the Veterans Tavern in Bessemer on June 28, 2024.
It was the second trial for Martinez on the charges. The first trial in July ended when District Court Judge Tim O’Shea declared a mistrial after jurors deadlocked 7 for conviction and 5 for acquittal.
Earlier in the day, lawyers for both sides presented their closing arguments each detailing the case. Just before noon on Thursday O’Shea sent the jurors to deliberate. The jury sent word to the judge that they had reached a unanimous verdict.
At 4:40 p.m., the verdict was announced in a packed courtroom. Judge O’Shea polled all 12 of the jurors and each one said they agreed with the finding of guilty. Spectators who had supported Martinez at both trials were stunned and several were seen crying.
Judge O’Shea revoked Martinez’s million dollar bond and ordered that he be held without bond. Martinez has been held in the Pueblo County Detention Center since his arrest in July 2024. A sentencing date of Dec. 29, 2025 was set.
The following report was written on Wednesday after prosecution and defense lawyers had rested their cases and before the verdict was known.
By JUAN ESPINOSA
PUEBLO — Lawyers for the defense rested their case in the retrial for David Frank Martinez, 73, Wednesday afternoon and the first-degree murder case could be in the hands of the jury today after both sides present their closing arguments.
Martinez is charged with the June 28, 2024 murder of Elaine DeLeon Munoz Masias at the Veterans Tavern. The first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors were locked 7-5, favoring a conviction.
None of the evidence showed any connection between Martinez and the Masias and it appears she was not the intended victim. Prosecutors’ case revolved around the fact that Martinez’s ex-girlfiend was in the bar at the time of the shooting and was Martinez’s intended target.
Prosecutors David Dingess and Kyle McCarthy built their case around hours of surveillance video taken from cameras at area businesses and private residences showing a Ford F250 truck belonging to Martinez cruising the Bessemer neighborhood a half hour before the shooting.
In addition to Martinez’s truck, the video shows a silhouetted and out-of-focus figure entering an alley that leads to the alley behind the tavern. Though it is hard to make out, police investigators claim the figure is carrying a handgun and wearing a black hoodie. Minutes after the suspect enters the alley and disappears off camera, 13 shots can be heard and the figure is seen hurrying out of the alley.
Another evidence video is an interview with Martinez and detectives on July 5, 2024 that took place while other officers were searching Martinez’s home. The detectives confront Martinez with the video of his truck slowly passing by the Veterans Tavern. During the more than three-hour interrogation, they tell him that the search of his home has turned up a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun.
In the video, the detectives appear to be confident they have their man and ask him that he’s going to say when the weapon is tested against the shell casings found at the scene. Martinez tells them that the casings will not match the weapon found at his house.
Surprisingly, he is right. When tested by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab, the Smith & Wesson does not match the casings. Even more surprising is that the casings found behind the tavern do match a 45-caliber auto Springfield XD that was tested by CBI in 2019 at the request of Pueblo Police.
Turns out that the Springfield .45 was involved in a report of shots fired at a Pueblo McDonalds Restaurant and a domestic violence incident. Police confiscated the weapon and sent to to the lab for testing. When no charges were filed, the weapon was returned to its owner, Julian Saccamano in Nov. 2020. That firearm was reported lost of stolen by Saccamano in 2022.
How that weapon came to be used in the murder of Masias is a mystery. According to testimony, the closest Martinez ever came to that gun was when he lived across the street and four doors down from Saccamano at the time it went missing.
Other key evident in the case involved the fence in the alley behind Veterans Tavern and a wooden pallet found leaning against the fence. Because Martinez is 67 inches tall and the fence is six-feet (72 inches), police theorized the pallet was used as a footstool to enable Martinez to shoot over the fence.
Defense lawyers Michael Stuzynski and Kyle Worthington called fewer witnesses and relied on rebutting prosecutors’ evidence. Three witness for the defense were Martinez’s ex-wife of 32 years and two former girlfriends, including Cheryl Rampa who was at Veterans that night. All three said the video of the suspect did not look like Martinez; didn’t walk like him and didn’t dress like him.
Stuzynski questioned police lead detective Kenneth Cole about the black sweatshirt and the missing gun. He asked why the video showed the sweatshirt to be light in color and did not show the white artwork on it. When Cole explained that some surveillance cameras often do not show true colors or tones.
Stuzynski said police had ample time to photograph the sweatshirt with the surveillance camera, but didn’t. They also didn’t continue looking for the missing gun. In cross examination, Cole testified that he checked a pawn shop data base after the shooting, but had not checked it recently.
The only new evidence presented in the defenses case were text messages allegedly from a Tommy Rodriguez who make threats against the owner of Veterans Tavern. In the messages, Rodrigues reportedly threatened to beat the owner up, have someone burn the bar, and/or make it uncomfortable for patrons to go to your bar.
Detective Cole said police cleared Rodrigues as a potential suspect because he showed proof that he was at a concert in Denver at the time of the shooting.