SANTA ANA — A 43-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years to life in prison for fatally shooting the on-again, off-again boyfriend of one of his drug-dealing associates in a Stanton motel.
Joel Brandon Martinez was convicted Feb. 15, 2024, of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of a gun by a felon, all felonies. Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement for discharge of a gun causing death.
Co-defendant Amy Lynn Black was sentenced in April to 15 years to life in prison for her part in the killing.
Co-defendants Gilbert Timothy Ramirez and Brandon Garet Iseminger accepted plea deals. Ramirez was sentenced in March 2023 to 10 years and four months in prison while Iseminger was sentenced to six years, or time served in jail awaiting trial.
Martinez was convicted of fatally shooting 35-year-old Carlos Beltran Aguilar on the afternoon of Aug. 26, 2019, in the Villa Motel, 11672 Beach Blvd.
In the days leading up to the shooting, Black sent multiple angry text messages to two friends complaining about Aguilar. She also sent messages that pointed to her desire to have the victim killed, Senior Deputy District Attorney Alexa Elliott said in her opening statement of the trial.
Black was suspicious that Aguilar, who would stay with her whenever he wasn’t in jail on drug charges in 2018 and 2019 while they were dating, was cheating with an ex-girlfriend, Elliott said.
Martinez supplied heroin and methamphetamine to Black to sell out of a motel room where she had been staying, Elliott said.
Black sent a message to Martinez seeking help, but Martinez and his friends had been out late the night before partying and did not see the messages right away, Elliott said.
When Martinez finally woke up around noon, he allegedly told Black he would be right over. Martinez, Iseminger and Ramirez at the time were staying at the Stanton home of a friend, Elliott said.
Aguilar’s cousin, who was trying to help get the victim to sober up, dropped him off at Black’s room to gather some belongings before the relative could take him to a rehab facility, Elliott said.
Martinez, Iseminger and Ramirez got to the motel at about 1:11 p.m. and Martinez went in, Elliott said. Ramirez and Iseminger went in and out for the first few minutes, but then left the three alone in the room, where a gunshot can be heard, Elliott said.
Black told police Martinez jumped on the bed, pointed the gun at the victim and shot him once, killing him, the prosecutor said.
At Black’s sentencing, one of Aguilar’s daughters, Adriana, told Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer how she recalled learning her father died.
“My dad’s death affected me a lot,” Adriana said. “One, for me to think I finally found a person who took me as one of their own and treated me like his own and loved as his own and never thought about it twice. Also, for me to turn the big 15 and I cannot even spend my big special day with him there, and for him to see me become the young caring woman he told me to be.”
Another daughter, Jennifer, recalled how her heart sank “with disbelief” when learning of his death, especially given that “Two days prior to his death, my oldest sister had told us that he was trying to turn his life around and get his own place, so we can finally stay nights with him.”
She said Aguilar was “always my biggest support along with my mom, but my dad always told me, `mija, you are strong, just keep on pushing.’ Those words always play in my head when I need it the most. He always told me I’d be the fighter and protector out of my sisters and I believe in that because I do see it.”
She said her father “cracked jokes” and was “just a person you can be yourself around.” She described him as “gentle and sensitive but strong-minded.”
Aguilar enjoyed taking the girls out to a “favorite restaurant” or the park to “play for hours,” Jennifer said.
Another daughter, Layloni, said she still finds it hard to believe her father is gone.
“Till this day it is still hard to believe,” she said. “It still hurts me on the inside that he is not here with us anymore.”
She said she struggled with depression and that she was a “daddy’s girl.” She said she still feels “so lost without him. I missed a lot of school because of it.”
Layloni recalled how two nights before he died he called her and said he had gotten a job lined up and was working on “getting an apartment for me and my sisters to start spending the night with him. I was so excited because my dad was starting to change his life. Then, two days later — he was no longer with us.”
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