The case involving the 2007 murder of Chandler woman and convenience store owner Nisay Kang will have to be heard by another jury and possibly in front of another judge.
The penalty phase of the Jesus Arturo Martinez case ended in a hung jury on Tuesday, according to a court worker in Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie’s office on Thursday.
After deliberating for one week, the jury had voted 11-1 in favor of giving Arturo Martinez, 20, the death penalty for stabbing and beating Kang, 36, to death in May, 2007.
Arturo Martinez stabbed and beat Kang to death inside the convenience she store owned and operated inside the former Peaks at Papago Park apartment complex at 815 N. 52nd St. in east Phoenix near the Tempe and Scottsdale borders. Police later discovered blood-stained currency inside Kang’s purse and other evidence from the crime Arturo Martinez took back to the apartment in the 768-unit complex where he lived.
Arturo Martinez pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary and robbery, avoiding a trial.
A new sentencing hearing for the case is scheduled to begin on Jan. 4, 2012.
Arturo Martinez is facing life in prison or the death penalty.
mandi1 posted at 12:45 am on Fri, Nov 4, 2011.
I can not believe they were hung on this!!! Seriously, he used a pen and a pair of scissors to torture this poor woman.
Masterrogue666 posted at 7:15 am on Fri, Nov 4, 2011.
mandi1: Even though the scum admitted he did it, it's because it's a Death sentence. So some bleeding heart said no. I wonder that if something like that happened to one of their family members what they'd say.
I say DEATH....