Officer: Accused had a bat days before fatal attack

Last Updated on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 02:22 pm Written by Christie Rotondo Tuesday, February 26, 2013 02:16 pm

/Photo by Christie Rotondo/Alberto Martinez was carrying a bat in Wildwood two days before he attacked a 19-year-old man with one, police testified in Cape May County court Monday. CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE- Days before Alberto Martinez allegedly attacked Vincent DeSario with a baseball bat, Wildwood police officers testified that he had been carrying one while in the city.

At an evidence hearing Monday, patrolmen Donald Boice and Nino Cusello said that they saw Martinez at Squeeky’s Laundrymat on Atlantic Avenue with a 26-inch baseball bat attached to his bike on May 8, 2010.

That was two days before Martinez allegedly struck 19-year-old DeSario with a baseball bat on Atlantic Avenue. DeSario, of Edision, had been visiting Wildwood with his college golf team. He was a student at Middlesex County College, and set to graduate on May 20. On May 24, DeSario died from his injuries at AtlanticCare Regional Medical Center.

“Are you laughing at me?” was what Martinez asked DeSario before he struck him, Prosecutor Robert Johnson said Monday. DeSario had been walking down the street with some friends, and when one of them tripped, the group began to laugh.

Before Wildwood officers saw Martinez with the bat on his bicycle May 8, Boice testified that Kathy Thompson, a manager at the Walgreens in town, reported that a man who fit Martinez description had been walking around the store with a bat attached to his beltloop.

When officers saw Martinez at the self-service laundry, they confiscated the bat and asked him to leave the property.

“I felt that it was important to take it, I didn’t want to have any potential problems,” Boice said. He also added that Martinez said he was carrying the bat because he was “using it to hit rocks.”

Sean Breslin, a security guard at the social services building in Rio Grande, said that at 10:30 a.m. May 10, he confiscated another bat from Martinez when he tried to enter the building with it hanging from his belt loop. When Martinez left, Breslin said, he returned the bat.

Breslin described the bat as a wooden souvenir baseball bat, like one someone would have gotten from a baseball game. It was smaller than the kind of bat an adult would use to play the game. The average bat used in Major League Baseball is about 34 inches long.

At the time, Martinez was a 28-year-old homeless man in Wildwood, but had previously lived on Rio Grande Avenue. Earlier this year, Judge Raymond Batten decided that Martinez was fit to stand trial, despite his defense attorney’s assertion that Martinez suffers from hallucinations and delusional thinking.

Defense attorney Steven Patrick said that when Martinez gave his statement to police, Martinez said he raised the bat to DeSario, but it was a mirror image of himself that struck DeSario.

Patrick said that Martinez later claimed it wasn’t him speaking on the tape.

Batten decided Monday that the testimony about Martinez’s prior possession of a bat could be used at trial to prove identification and that Martinez possessed a similar object, but did not show intent or motive to commit the crime.

Defense attorney Steven Patrick argued the decision. He said that the bat police confiscated May 8 could not possibly be the bat Martinez used when he attacked DeSario, and that he never threatened anyone with the bat he had been carrying.

“At no point whatsoever was the bat brandished or used as a weapon,” Patrick said. “Carrying a baseball bat in public is not a crime.”

Both Martinez and DeSario’s families were present at the hearing Monday. At a pretrial conference, Judge Patricia Wild determined that a bench trial will be held May 6, unless DeSario opts for a jury trial, which would move the trial to a later date. A bench trial is one decided by a judge, rather than a jury.

Wild will be handling the case. At the pretrial conference, she scolded Patrick and Martinez because Martinez was wearing flip-flops.

Marinez is charged with murder and possession of a weapon. Wild said that he could face life in prison for the crime.

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