SAN JOSE — Through an irreplicable sequence of administrative actions and court rulings, a man sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for a prolific string of rapes, robberies and jail escapes across California in the 1970s and 1980s has a legitimate chance to get his sentence recalled by a South Bay court.
Eric Patrick Martin, 68, appeared via video call Tuesday in the courtroom of Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Williams, who heard arguments from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and Public Defender’s Office over whether Martin deserves to be resentenced.
A chance recommendation
The road to this point has been acknowledged by both sides as unique. Martin was evaluated for elderly parole in 2016 after he turned 60, but his evaluation, known as a Comprehensive Risk Assessment, ended with the state parole board denying him further parole consideration until 2031.
But three years later, the administration of Ralph Diaz, then-Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, recommended that Martin’s sentence be recalled because of Senate Bill 1393, a 2019 change in state law that gave sentencing judges the discretion to dismiss previously mandatory 5-year prison enhancements for prior convictions.
Two such enhancements were part of the 79-year sentence Martin received after he was convicted in Santa Clara County in 1984 on 15 counts of sexual assault and robbery in San Jose. Prosecutors questioned the rationale of the secretary’s recommendation, noting that it only addressed Martin’s robbery convictions and not the accompanying sexual assault convictions, nor did it address his decades-long sentences for similar convictions in several other counties.
The CDCR recommendation sent Martin’s sentencing back to the Santa Clara County Superior Court for review, and the court in 2021 declined to recall the sentence, citing that SB 1393 did not apply retroactively to Martin’s sentence and conviction, because they were not actively on appeal.
CDCR changes its mind
Martin appealed this ruling, and, in another unusual step, CDCR, now being run by then-Secretary Kathleen Allison, rescinded its recall recommendation for Martin. Subsequently, the state Attorney General’s Office petitioned the Sixth District Court of Appeal to dismiss Martin’s appeal on the premise that the CDCR takeback now rendered it moot.
In late 2022, the appellate court disagreed, and ruled that the trial court erred in dismissing the recall on technical grounds, and ordered that court to evaluate Martin’s recall bid on its merits. Judge Williams was tasked with the case, and has full resentencing discretion from the state, meaning that his ruling encompasses the totality of Martin’s sentence, not just the robbery counts cited in the initial CDCR recommendation or his convictions in Santa Clara County.
After a year of procedural hearings and court briefs, Williams on Tuesday heard arguments from prosecutor Brian King and deputy public defender David Tarica.
A prolific criminal history
Martin served prison time for sexual assaults he committed in the 1970s and early 1980s in Alameda, San Francisco, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Soon after he was paroled in late 1983, he was arrested and convicted of a string of attacks in San Jose including a home break-in where he forced a woman to orally copulate him with the victim’s young daughter nearby.
He was given a 79-year sentence for the San Jose crimes, and in 1986 he was transferred from prison to jail custody at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County to face robbery, sexual assault and false imprisonment charges in connection with a 1984 Newark attack.
In October 1986, Martin reportedly staged a fight at Santa Rita so that he could feign injury enough to be taken off the grounds for medical care. During that transport, he knocked out a deputy and fled to Southern California, where he surfaced the following month in San Bernardino County after stealing a car by pulling a gun on a used-car salesman during a test drive.
Martin was arrested in Los Angeles after police tracked the stolen car, but he escaped custody again after first giving authorities a fake name using a driver’s license he stole or found, which led him to be put in minimum-security jail housing. Like in Santa Rita, he faked illness to prompt another hospital trip, then overpowered and took a gun away from a deputy transporting him.
When Martin was arrested a week later, in December 1986, authorities determined that while he was on the lam, he sexually assaulted a woman at gunpoint. He has been in state prison custody steadily since 1987.
The latest arguments
In arguing against a recall of Martin’s sentence, King told Judge Williams that CDCR erred in making its initial recall recommendation because of its narrow scope — the Santa Clara County robbery convictions — and little documented evidence in Martin’s prison record that he has undergone the requisite counseling and programming to ensure he can be safely freed.
“Right now there exists a preponderance of evidence that if released, Mr. Martin would commit a violent felony,” King said. “Mr. Martin still is an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
The prosecutor pointed to how many of Martin’s crimes occurred shortly after release from prior jail and prison stints, and his multiple escapes from authorities, all conduct showing he “is not capable of not committing sexual assaults.”
Tarica acknowledged Martin’s criminal history but focused on his client’s present violence-free conduct in prison and as a man in his late 60s. He referenced Martin’s Comprehensive Risk Assessment in 2016, arguing that the record shows that Martin was not given a fair hearing and was flustered into appearing to downplay his past crimes.
“If he had been able to explain himself, he would have become less defensive and less minimizing at times,” Tarica said.
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Tarica added Martin has “had another eight years of insight, another eight years of good behavior, another eight years of programming,” and emphasized that the sex-offender counseling and resources that might satisfy the prosecution’s concerns are difficult to readily obtain in prison.
Ultimately, Tarica said the court is tasked with evaluating the danger that Martin presents today rather than when he committed his crimes nearly 40 years ago. He also argued state law weighs in favor of granting Martin sentencing relief, which the statute states “may only be overcome if a court finds the defendant currently poses an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety.”
“The DA has not met its burden,” Tarica said.
Williams gave credence to both sides but did not signal how he might rule.
“What the court is giving a lot of weight to are the charges for which he was convicted in these cases, (and) the charges for which he was convicted in other cases,” Williams said.
The judge said he is “also open to what the defense says about his path to rehabilitation … Mr. Martin has, from this court’s perspective, progressed well along the lines of rehabilitation. His self-reflection has increased, and he is on that path.”
Williams said he expects to issue a written ruling on the case by early April.