Jonathan Eluterio Martinez Garcia hears his fate during a sentencing hearing in Clark County, Nevada on June 28, 2023. (Screen capture via KLAS)
A Nevada teenager will spend more than a decade behind bars for brutally beating a teacher nearly to death during a discussion over his grades in April 2022.
Jonathan Martinez Garcia, 17, was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years and a maximum of 40 years in prison by Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen Delaney, who had harsh words for the teenager being tried as a adult.
“This is the most heinous type of crime that can exist,” the judge told him, outraged at the attack on the educator, in comments reported by CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS.
In April, Martinez Garcia pleaded guilty to attempted murder, attempted sexual assault, and assault with a deadly weapon resulting in grievous bodily harm. He initially faced a dozen charges in the attack on his teacher over a grades discussion.
According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the 16-year-old “became violent” with the teacher during this discussion, “punched the victim and choked her until she lost consciousness “.
Prosecutors also alleged that a sexual assault took place.
The incident happened in the back of a classroom, near a computer, during office hours at Eldorado High School.
Prosecutors shared grim, never-before-released details during Martinez Garcia’s sentencing hearing this week.
According to the Las Vegas Sun report, the two were supposed to talk about the teenager returning homework missing.
He started by strangling her with a rope from behind.
Then the woman’s wrists were cut, prosecutors said Wednesday, and then she was pinned under bookshelves.
“Sade remembers him saying, ‘Why won’t you die?
At one point, the newspaper reported, Martinez Garcia broke off his attack to answer a phone call from his mother.
The victim spoke during an impact statement.
“I’ve been jailed by him twice now,” she said, according to The Sun. “The first time was during the actual attack. He held me hostage in my own classroom. I passed out several times at his hands. He beat me until my body couldn’t take it over and over again. I just thought it was out of the question for me to get out of this class alive. The second imprisonment has been every day since. I feel like my body and my mind no longer belong to me.
“It makes sense that he should be in prison for as long as possible,” she concluded.
Her family also went to court, saying she suffered from chronic pain and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, the newspaper reported. It is in its 2 uses to use a walker to move.
The victim’s father said his daughter’s name translates to “Crown Princess” in her native language, according to the Sun.
“What’s left of her is a hollow, empty human being, not a princess,” he reportedly said.
Martinez Garcia also spoke at the hearing.
“I’m sorry and I regret the things I did,” he said, according to KLAS. “I’m going to tell myself that I have no one to blame but myself.”
Public defender Tyler Gaston sought to assign some blame elsewhere, saying the attack was likely caused by a drug called montelukast. His client used it for his asthma. The FDA has linked the drug to “serious neuropsychiatric events.”
“He only had a story to be a perfect, loving child,” Gaston explained. “Jonathan did something wrong to someone, so we as a society have to do something wrong to him. It’s not justice.
According to the Sun, he cried as his attorney played a slideshow of him as a child. In the photos, he was smiling.
Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report.
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