5 Years Later, Cops Arrest Javier Martinez’s Alleged Killer

After 18-year-old Javier Martinez was shot and killed in Fair Haven Heights, his family grieved without closure. Five years later, cops identified and arrested his alleged shooter, as officials announced at a press conference at police headquarters on Union Avenue.

Early in the morning on Dec. 28, 2013, Martinez was walking over to a friend’s home on Clifton Street when two people — one of them an armed teenager — attempted to rob him. Near Hemingway and Russell Streets, Martinez struggled with the robbers and tried to escape; the teenager shot him at least five times, killing him.

Sgt. Bertram Ettienne, lead detective on the case, obtained an arrest warrant for the suspected shooter on July 7. The arrestee, a New Haven man who is now 22 years old, is already in prison for an unrelated non-fatal shooting. He has been charged with felony murder, criminal attempt, robbery in the 1st degree, and carrying a pistol without a permit in connection with Martinez’ case.

Chief Otoniel Reyes said that soon after the investigation began, some individuals involved with the case cooperated with police officers.

“Pretty soon after the investigation, suspects were developed in this case. But it takes a while for us to be able to put a case together,” Reyes said.

He declined to provide further details about the case, as the police are working on arresting others involved in the murder.

Reyes spoke to the resolve of the detectives involved in solving the case.

“Other than the families, nobody else thinks about these cases more than the detectives. And so this closure is just as much for them,” he said. ​“Every day, they’re thinking about not just the current case that came in, but how can I make headway on that other case.”

Reyes offered a message to other families waiting for cold cases to be solved: ​“We will not forget about your loved ones.”

Martinez was a senior at Common Ground High School at the time of his death. He was a devoted environmentalist who planted trees across New Haven with the Urban Resources Initiative. He also took part in the Nature Conservancy’s efforts to eliminate invasive species on Block Island, Rhode Island, through LEAF (Leaders for Environmental Action for the Future), a competitive national program.

Martinez’ presence was felt at Common Ground throughout the rest of what would have been his final year there. His family and classmates devoted a four-page spread to him in the yearbook that year. One of his younger brothers, Jose Martinez-Velez, walked across the stage to accept his high school diploma on the day that he would have graduated.

Martinez-Velez, who was six years younger than Martinez, said that for years, the family had thought that nothing would come of the case. ​“It helps a little,” he said, to know that the police charged one of the suspects involved.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him,” said Martinez’ grandmother, Sonia Natal-Martinez. She thanked the detectives involved with the case.

She also read a statement written by Martinez’ mother, who was unable to attend the press conference. ​“When this person took my son’s life, he also took mine,” Martinez’ mother wrote.

Martinez’ aunt, Kathy Sanchez, said that Martinez had ​“a smile that would melt your heart.”

“Javii was an amazing soul to all that crossed his path,” she said. ​“I have no doubt that he would have made a difference for the youth in New Haven in the coming years.”

“Today’s supposed to be a good day because the person that did this to our baby will finally be behind bars,” she added. ​“I refuse to make this day about that person. This day is about Javii.”

Sanchez read from an essay that Martinez wrote shortly before his death, excerpted below:

My drug-plagued environment makes me wish for a better world for my five younger brothers and for the many other struggling families in my community. Then there will be a place where you don’t have to sell drugs or work three jobs to just be comfortable.

Teenagers wouldn’t carry guns just to feel safe, and sirens will become more of a memory than a reality, and people will feel safe raising their kids in the better streets in New Haven. … Kids will stop devoting themselves to the streets, at ages as young as 12, and won’t be ripped away from their parents by a bullet or a badge.

Instead, parents will be visiting different colleges with their kids that they never got to attend themselves. I want to see parents hugging their children rather than talking to them on a phone that beeps every few seconds.