A state prison inmate convicted of killing a fellow inmate in 2012 while serving a life sentence for a 2005 murder could be sentenced to death if convicted by a jury next year of killing another inmate in 2018, according to court records.
Richard Troy Wilson was indicted in May 2019 of first-degree murder for the death of Victor Abraham Martinez Jr. who died in June 2018 in his cell at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Tucson. He has turned down four plea deals in the case and is now set to stand trial at the Pima County Superior Court starting Oct. 5, 2021.
Wilson, 38, filed a motion to have the death penalty dropped from the case but Judge James Marner ruled last month that if the jury finds Wilson guilty of murder they will be able to consider capital punishment. In Arizona that would mean death by lethal injection.
Court records show Wilson was sentenced to life in prison for killing Marcus Pena during a 2005 home invasion in Mesa. He was later convicted by a jury in Pinal County of second-degree murder for the deadly March 2012 attack on inmate Nolan Pierce in a maximum security cell at a prison complex in Florence.
At the time, Pierce was serving a 25-year sentence for a 2007 armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Martinez, the victim in the latest case against Wilson, was serving a 44-year prison sentence for second-degree murder and child abuse after his former girlfriend was shot six times in the head in January 2010 as she sat in her car. The couple’s toddler-aged daughter was found hugging her dead mother when passersby discovered the vehicle several hours later.
It is unclear why it took nearly one year for charges to be filed in connection to Martinez’s death.
Wilson has also compiled an extensive list of other major disciplinary infractions in prison, including assaults on staff and inmates, tampering with security devices, and disorderly conduct. He is being held at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Eyman in Florence as a maximum custody risk and is only transferred to the Pima County jail as needed for court proceedings.