Wednesday, June 17, 2020
“I’m getting the runaround; I’m not getting any answers and it’s frustrating.” Those were the words of Mrs. Melanie Martinez, the wife of John Allen Martinez Jr., 40, after he was found hanged in the Sabine Parish Detention Center on March 18. “He was my husband,” she said. “He was the father of my sons, twins – 18, another age 14 and one nine.”
Her husband suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression she said. He served in Afghanistan for a year, saw death and destruction and came home a different man.
PTSD is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event, either experienced or witnessed. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
She related, “He served from 2009-13. He was disabled and suffered an injury while in the service. He was struggling to find himself. He was struggling with his demons.”
He was arrested March 7 on a charge of attempted second-degree murder in connection with an alleged attack on his brother in Zwolle. “It was totally out of character for him to do something like that,” she said. “I thought he was safe in jail. I thought he would be protected.”
A bond hearing was held March 11 and bail was denied. The judge ordered a psychiatric assessment. Mrs. Martinez does not think the assessment was ever held. During the bond hearing, Mrs. Martinez said she did not get to talk to her husband, except that he mouthed to her “I love you” and she responded the same back to him.
Mrs. Martinez said officials at the Detention Center knew he was a PTSD veteran, was depressed, on medication and should be watched. She said she and others told them.
Glenn Martinez, brother and victim of the incident which led to John Martinez’s arrest, and Glenn’s wife Joanie said they adamantly told the Zwolle Police Department that John Martinez was not acting like himself and needed to be watched when they originally reported the incident.
In addition, others warned of John Allen Martinez’s fragile state. When the incident happened, John Martinez Sr. assisted the Zwolle Police Dept. in locating his son. Martinez Sr. says he met with the Zwolle Police Chief, the Assistant Chief and one other Zwolle officer and gave them a full accounting of his son’s emotional, mental and physical disabilities, including his severe military-associated PTSD, sharing episodes of his son being held at VA medical centers mental health units on a couple of occasions and he told the policemen that his son was considered suicidal.
Martinez Sr. related that when the Zwolle Police Dept. found his son, Martinez Jr. was not aggressive, but he then suffered an episode where he became unconscious and unresponsive.
At that point, Melanie Martinez was contacted by the Zwolle Police and she took a list and bag of medicines to the police department, again reminding them of his emotional, mental and physical disabilities. The Police Dept. was directed to take Martinez Jr. to Overton Brooks Medical Center if he should be transferred from Sabine Medical Center.
On Sunday, March 8, Martinez Sr. received a call from the Zwolle Police Dept. They said John Allen was going to be released from the hospital and they were sending officers to take him into custody. Once again, his father reminded the police about his son’s fragile emotional and mental state and said that when he was jailed, they should place him on suicide watch and keep a close eye on him. “This obviously did not happen, and the warning was not taken seriously by law officials,” Martinez Sr. stated.
Continuing, Melanie Martinez said, “On March 13, John Allen’s father and I met with District Attorney Don Burkett and told him, ‘This is not the man we know. Something is going on with him.’ Our goal was to get him help and we hoped we were on the right path.”
It was March 18 when the tragic event took place. Mrs. Martinez learned her husband was dead from her brother-in-law. The news came to him in a round-about way, but originated from an inmate in the Detention Center who had a cell phone, which is not supposed to be allowed.
Other reports coming to Observations say there are as many as 13 illegal cell phones held by prisoners in the Detention Center.
We learned from news reports that John Martinez was housed alone in a two-man cell. It was said he talked through the wall to another inmate at around 3:21 p.m. His time of death was listed at 4:54 p.m. He hung himself from a hook in the cell with a bed sheet. He was found during the routine inmate check at shift change. He was pronounced dead in the cell.
Mrs. Martinez said, “Nobody with the Sheriff’s Department ever called me. I was in Natchitoches when I received the word. I called the Detention Center and asked them to tell me it wasn’t true,” she stated.
“I want to know what happened,” Mrs. Martinez said. “I called the Detention Center and they wouldn’t tell me anything because they said it was an ‘ongoing investigation.’”
She has kept a log of her attempts to learn something about it, and as of last Friday she had called 42 times trying to get information. She said, “I called Sheriff Ronny Richardson, Detective Todd McNeely, DA Don Burkett, Coroner Ron Rivers and many times to people at the Detention Center.”
She said she received the Coroner’s Report dated May 5 along with the death certificate, and it listed the cause of death as suicide with asphyxiation by hanging.
Continuing, she remarked, “Detective McNeely told me at one point he was waiting on the Coroner’s Report. Then he told me he was waiting on one more piece of evidence. The report was issued May 5. On May 14 he told me he was finishing up his report and it would be available that week. It wasn’t. I talked to Mr. Burkett May 18 and he told me he had not received the Sheriff’s Department report. I talked to Detective McNeely again and he said he was making headway. They wouldn’t give me any details. I found out more by watching KTBS-TV than from the officials.”
“Why wasn’t he placed on suicide watch?” she asked. “He was found unconscious the night of March 4, taken to Sabine Medical Center and then to LSU. The people at the Detention Center were told by me and others that he could hurt himself. The VA Hospital faxed them a list of the medications he was taking.”
“The last thing I ever expected was to get a phone call like that,” she stated. “No one should ever have to go home and tell their nine-year-old son their Daddy isn’t coming home.”
“My husband was not a criminal,” she continued. “He was arrested only one other time, that being in 2001 for DWI, but never again. He was not a bad guy. We had been married 19 years and had been together for 21.”
Mrs. Martinez concluded, “Right now, I want answers. At the very least, family members should be able to get information from the Sheriff’s Office. When people at the Detention Center are told there is a danger, it should be taken seriously.”
The family lives near Robeline and Mrs. Martinez has taught school at Marthaville for 10 years.
Courtney Barajas posted these photos of the damage done when someone rifled through her husband Taylor’s truck last week. They live in Many’s Trace St. area and the truck was left unlocked. Folks in Blake Subdivision and Blake Addition of Many have been hard hit over a period of several years by break-ins. Ms. Barajas posted on Facebook that “Idiots didn’t even find his wallet in there with his cash. Thank God!”
The Many Police Department is hard at work to solve the most recent rash of auto-rifling and theft that took place in the early morning hours of June 8. According to Officer Kyle Cook, the video image that was captured of the alleged suspect was sent to the Louisiana State Police investigative unit, and then forwarded to their forensics unit where the photos can be “cleaned up and cleared up.”
“We have also collected DNA to send to the crime lab. We are doing this to build a profile of the suspect. This will give us, at the least, a family name and, at the most, a suspect name,” Cook stated.
People of the area have become concerned enough that resident Tammy Mangum Fiscus started a social media Neighborhood Watch on Facebook. The page and participation is only accessible to invited members living in Blake Subdivision.
Several feel that it is important for those who see suspicious activity to share photos, descriptions and any other information that might be helpful for those living in the area to know. And everyone is reminded to keep vehicles locked at all times and to turn outside lights on at night.
Hopefully, the Many Police will soon have information to help solve the investigation.
“We are employing a new technique, as well,” Officer Cook shared. Without elaborating on the new method’s particulars, he said, “We have great hope that it will be useful in the future and greatly benefit our victims of theft.”
COMMON SENSE in these UNCOMMON TIMES
Our friend Gregg Davies of Winnfield posted the following on social media May 31:
“I have been in law enforcement since the mid-1970s. I was fortunate enough to have earned, somehow, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice and taught at a police academy for about ten years and at two colleges, part-time, for about that same length of time. Additionally, I have completed hundreds of hours in advanced training and after almost 30 years at the [Winn Parish] Sheriff’s Office, went to work for another law enforcement group and have managed to be on that job for almost 12 years. I am in and out of 150 law enforcement agencies year in and year out. I say all that to say a few more things.
“First of all, I have worked with racist people, black and white. But not once have I ever known a law enforcement officer to be at the point that they allowed their racist thoughts to take over and harm anyone of an opposite race.
“It bothered me then and bothers me now that I knew some in the business who would get a kick out of writing a ticket to some poor person, black or white, who was simply trying to make a living. In particular, a pulp wood hauler [or] some guy barely getting by who needed that ticket money to pay rent, utilities and buy groceries.
“I am proud that I worked for two sheriffs over almost 30 years who both bent over backwards to help poor people, and it rubbed off on their agencies. Dan Page taught me that anyone who walked in the front door of the Sheriff’s Office, regardless of color, stature or sex, was a citizen and deserved treatment equal to that given a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief.
“I realize some feel they or their race has been discriminated against. I get that. But, growing up as a poor kid in a poor town where about five families had all the wealth, we whites felt the same way more often than one would think.
“It bothers me when police screw up. There are bad cops. There are bad preachers, bad doctors, bad lawyers, and well… Indian chiefs.
“It also bothers me when people go nuts and start looting and burning and destroying property and what I really question is why in the hell would one burn down the only grocery store, drug store or whatever else it is he relies on daily, in his own neighborhood. We can talk pent-up tensions all we want. Breaking the law is not an answer to someone else breaking the law.
“People need to realize it takes time to investigate an offense, regardless of how obvious it might seem. Law is law. Autopsies need to be completed. Investigations need to be completed from the womb to the tomb, so to speak, in order for justice to prevail.
“I’ll tell anyone this, in all my years of work, I learned something important. If you don’t have your ducks in a row once you hit that courtroom, there will be highly trained, intelligent defense lawyers on the other side who will pick your pocket before you get your trousers on.”
Mansfield Judge Charles Adams who represents the 42nd Judicial District announced Monday that he was retiring and also announced that he is running for District Attorney from DeSoto Parish. He served as Judge 23 years and was Assistant District Attorney seven years prior to that. He served as Judge and Assistant DA in Sabine Parish before the district was split. Current DeSoto District Attorney is Gary Evans.
FREE, LIVE MUSIC IN DOWNTOWN MANY this SATURDAY
Enjoy free, live music this Saturday, June 20 on San Antonio Ave. in front of the Sabine Theater [Many Community Center] in downtown Many courtesy of the Turn-Ups. The group will play from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
James Wagley and two others will play their fabulous oldies and crowd favorites. “It’s our way of letting everyone know we are still community strong,” said the Town of Many’s Facebook post on the event.
Attendees can social distance on the sidewalk in lawn chairs or listen from their cars. Should be plenty of parking available on a Saturday evening along San Antonio.
See you there!
That’s all for this time. I love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for future articles. Send an email to robertrgentry@gmail.com or call me at (318) 332-8653. To save, send or print this week’s column, click on the appropriate icon below. To see Observations of the past few years, follow the pages below. To see older ones, visit our Facebook page. As always, thank you for your faithful readership.
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