Man Accused Of Fatal Drive-By Shooting Faces Life In Prison If Convicted

Rick Walter Martin [Photo courtesy Cochise County Sheriff's Office]

A 20-year-old Sierra Vista man with a lengthy criminal history dating back to age 13 must be sentenced to life in prison if a jury finds him guilty of first-degree murder following a fatal drive-by shooting back in September on one of the city’s busiest streets, court records show.

Rick Walter Martin is set to stand trial Feb. 16, 2021 on 11 felonies in connection to the death of Jorge Portillo, who was killed Sept. 28 as he drove along Fry Boulevard. He is also suspected of assaulting Portillo several weeks prior after Portillo’s girlfriend ran into a car belonging to Martin’s mother.

Martin, 20, will be back in court Dec. 11 for a pretrial conference. He remains in the Cochise County jail after Judge Laura Cardinal issued a no-bail order following an Oct. 7 evidentiary hearing during which Sierra Vista Det. John Andela testified he believed there was “a high risk” of further violence if Martin is released on bail pending trial.

The judge agreed, ruling she found “no condition or combinations of conditions” to reasonably protect the community and ensure Martin appears for trial. One fact Cardinal said she considered was the fact Martin was on federal probation at the time of the shooting for a conviction of conspiracy to smuggle people into the country for profit.

Federal court documents reveal a federal judge placed Martin on probation for three years in December 2019 over the objections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Probation Office, both of which recommended a term of imprisonment with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

In arguing for prison time in the smuggling case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Frances Kreamer Hope referenced Martin’s criminal history, which included a “lengthy juvenile history of arrests and convictions” dating back to age 13.

“The defendant committed (the smuggling) offenses within six months of being released from the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections (ADJC) for the Aggravated Assault on a Peace Officer,” Kreamer Hope wrote. “Of additional concern is the fact that the defendant entered a deferred prosecution program in Cochise County after committing this offense but he was non-compliant and verbally abusive to his attorney. Finally, the defendant was cited for Disorderly Conduct while on pretrial release in this matter and he has displayed a defiant attitude with pretrial services.”

Kreamer Hope requested Martin serve 10 months in a federal prison, but a judge went with a straight probation sentence which put Martin back in Sierra Vista. Portillo was killed nine months later.

Andela, a major crimes detective, testified that four rounds from a handgun were fired into the driver’s side of Portillo’s pickup around 4:30 p.m. Investigators recovered one round which went past the gas cap into the unoccupied rear passenger area and two other rounds went into the rear driver’s side door.

The detective also testified that a fourth bullet shattered the rear driver’s side window before passing through the driver’s head rest and lodging into Portillo’s head. The bullet entered Portillo’s left temple, indicating he was looking left at the time.

At least four witnesses came forward after the shooting to describe the shooter’s vehicle as a red Honda passenger car. Martin was quickly publicly identified as a person of interest and as the owner of a red Honda car.

Court records show Martin was taken into custody the day after the shooting when he arranged to turn himself in. Investigators seize two handguns which reportedly belonged to Martin’s girlfriend who was in Martin’s car during the shooting.

In an astonishing twist, Martin was the subject of a drive-by shooting back in May near 7th Street and Busby Drive in Sierra Vista. Nearly a dozen rounds were fired at a vehicle Martin was riding in; no one was injured but several bullets struck nearby residences which were occupied by children at the time.