Daniel Martinez sentenced for Draper party shooting
Jul 19, 2024, 5:00 AM | Updated: 11:15 am
Daniel Martinez sentenced for Draper party shooting (FILE)
(FILE)
SALT LAKE CITY — Daniel Martinez was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in jail for the deaths of Jonathan Fuentes and Austin Powell in a party shooting, according to a release from the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
The release stated that on April 3, 2022, then-17-year-old Martinez was at a party at an Airbnb in Draper.
The manager of the Airbnb arrived at the property to end the party, when the release reported Martinez and his friend were throwing beer bottles into the street, shattering them.
Austin Powell confronted Martinez to stop breaking the bottles. The release said an argument followed, and then Martinez asked his friend for a gun.
The release said Martinez “skipped” toward Powell’s Tesla and fired 10 rounds toward the windshield. One of the rounds “overshot the vehicle and hit Mr. Fuentes, who was walking on the sidewalk behind the Tesla.”
Another bullet hit and killed Powell, officials said.
Martinez was convicted on May 31, 2024. On Thursday, a Third District Court judge sentenced Martinez to 25 years to life for each of the two counts of first-degree felony aggravated murder, the release reported.
“The defendant showed a blatant disregard for the safety of others as he fired his weapon while skipping towards the victims. The defendant’s reckless actions justified the judge ordering him to serve 25 years to life sentences consecutively to each other,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.
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