Martinez Jr., a 27-year-old Long Beach man, has been convicted of stabbing two women, both former girlfriends, to death.
He was first convicted in 2005 of killing Christina Wilkerson, 28, of Long Beach on March 18, 2003. Wilkerson was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck and body, then shot at point-blank range with a .22 rifle. For that crime, Martinez was sentenced to more than 50 years to life in prison.
The accused was convicted last November for the slaying of Myra Orozco, 24, of Long Beach. Orozco refused to help the defendant dispose of Wilkerson's remains and was stabbed and slashed close to 30 times in the face, neck and body before she was pushed out of the car she was sitting in and run over on March 30, 2003.
The same jury that found Martinez Jr. guilty of Orozco's death, as well as the special circumstance he had previously been convicted of murder and therefore eligible for the death penalty, deadlocked in December on whether Martinez Jr. should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole or put to death.
Jurors in the case who spoke to the Press-Telegram after the sentencing phase of the last trial said it was a vote of 11-1 in favor of death, and they attributed the deadlock to one juror who was described as having "a God complex."
Complicating the scheduling for the new penalty phase of the trial was the issue of the prosecutor, then Deputy District Patrick Connolly, poised to start his new job as a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge in December.
After attorneys on both sides met briefly Tuesday morning, a status update hearing was scheduled for May 28 in Department 10 of the Long Beach Superior Court, with jury selection for the new penalty phase of the trial slated for late June, court staff said.
Martinez Jr., meanwhile, is being held without bail in the Men's Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles.
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