Court grants Mission murderer hearing on mental retardation claim

MISSION - A man convicted of killing a 68-year-old woman and her blind granddaughter south of the city will have another chance to avoid the death penalty.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday granted Jose Noe Martinez a hearing to determine whether he was mentally retarded when he killed them.

The appeals court did not overturn his conviction. But if a state district court judge accepts that he was mentally retarded at the time, Martinez likely will be spared the death penalty under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

"The issue before the court was whether he could be executed if he is mentally retarded," his attorney Mandy Welch said.

A jury found Martinez guilty of fatally stabbing Esperanza Palomo and her 4-year-old granddaughter Amanda in February 1995 at Palomo's home in the tiny community of Madero.

Martinez told police he had broken into Palomo's home intending to steal a stereo and television but sexually assaulted her and killed her when she confronted him with a baseball bat.

When her granddaughter started crying, Martinez turned the knife on the 4-year-old. He stabbed her multiple times and ejaculated on her.

Martinez, who was 18 at the time, claimed to be under the influence of Rohypnol, a depressant popularly known as Roche pills or the date-rape drug, at the time of the attack. During later appeals, he also told the court he worked as an uneducated laborer and was sexually abused by his mother as a child.

A jury sentenced Martinez to death in 1996, but a later U.S. Supreme Court ruling provided the basis for his latest appeal.

In 2002, the high court found the execution of mentally retarded inmates unconstitutional.

Now, Martinez's attorneys must return to court to prove his mental disability, Welch said. If the court accepts their argument, he will remain in jail on a life sentence.

No court date has been set for the hearing on his mental retardation claim.

____

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.

____

This version of the story clarifies a previously posted version that oversimplified the legal proceedings that could result in Martinez avoiding the death penalty.