By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
POMONA – A man was convicted Wednesday of murdering his pregnant wife and her unborn child in El Monte just over seven years ago.
The Pomona jury deliberated about 1 1/2 days before finding Octavio Curiel Martinez, now 43, guilty of first-degree murder for the Aug. 29, 2018, shooting of his wife, Ana Maria Nuñez, who was about six months pregnant, and her fetus.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with allegations that he used and discharged a handgun.
The seven-man, five-woman panel also convicted Curiel Martinez of one count each of attempted murder of his father, shooting at an occupied dwelling and assault by means likely to produce injury, along with two counts each of corporal injury to a spouse and assault with a firearm involving his father and mother and three misdemeanor counts of child endangerment involving the couple’s two children and his stepson.
Curiel Martinez is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set Feb. 3.
Jurors are due back in court Thursday to resume deliberations in a second phase of the trial, in which the prosecution has alleged that the defendant has four prior misdemeanor convictions that it contends are numerous or of increasing seriousness.
During the prosecution’s closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Meghan Tallent told the jury that Curiel Martinez “very effectively shot and killed” his wife with two shots to the back, and that he also intended to kill her unborn child by leaving his wife for dead.
The prosecutor said the defendant believed that the unborn child was the result of an alleged affair that he suspected between his wife and his father, saying that there were no signs of a fight or struggle with his wife.
“Ana doesn’t know what is about to happen to her, but the defendant does,” Tallent said, telling jurors that he then went to his parents’ home nearby and shot at his father, who was standing near his own wife. Neither of the two were injured.
The prosecutor said Curiel Martinez was also involved in attacks on his wife in December 2016 and December 2017, including one in which she was left unconscious while the three children were in the home, along with shooting at his father’s vehicle as he drove away some time in the month leading up to his wife’s killing.
Curiel Martinez was subsequently extradited from Mexico, where he had fled after killing his wife, the prosecutor said.
Another prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Samantha Gomez, said outside court that no other family members agreed with the defendant’s belief about the suspected affair, saying that his father denied it while testifying and that his wife had denied it.
One of the defendant’s attorneys, Harvey Sherman, asked jurors to acquit his client of both counts of first-degree murder.
“Did he really have a plain as laid out by the prosecution?” the defense lawyer asked jurors.
Sherman argued that Curiel Martinez “did not act willfully, deliberately and with premeditation,” saying that jurors could instead potentially return a verdict on second-degree murder.
“I think the argument is that it wasn’t premeditated,” the defense lawyer said.
Sherman reminded jurors that they had heard testimony that his client had been using methamphetamine for about six years, saying that he was becoming more erratic over time.
He told the panel that what had happened was “horrific,” and said the defense wasn’t justifying any of the actions.
Curiel Martinez was taken into custody in March 2019 by Mexican police in Bolanos, Jalisco, Mexico, and was subsequently returned to Los Angeles County to stand trial. He has remained behind bars since then.
Anyone experiencing or at risk of domestic violence can obtain help by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.