In a deal made on the eve of his criminal trial, 24-year-old Ryan Martinez — a resident of Sandia Park, New Mexico, who was charged with attempted murder for shooting Native American activist Jacob Johns on Sept. 28, 2023 — has pleaded no contest to that charge and a related charge of aggravated assault, which stemmed from Martinez pointing a weapon at another activist, Malaya Corrine Peixhino. According to a press release issued by the First Judicial District Attorney, the two charges, which carried a firearm enhancement, combined for a sentence of nine and a half years. As part of Martinez’s plea deal, much of that was suspended. He’ll serve four years in the New Mexico Corrections Department, according to the release.
This was a hate crime. This is a continuation of colonial violence. Unfortunately, this criminal process is reflective of the systemic white supremacy that Indigenous peoples face. The shooter motivated by hatred got 9.5 years, but will actually be in prison for half that time. Just imagine if I shot a person at a MAGA rally or a Christian prayer service I’d be put away for life. And all we were doing was having a peaceful sunrise ceremony – we went there to pray and our prayers were answered because the Oñate statue still does not stand.
Jacob Johns
We live in a sick society where a man with a MAGA hat would come with a loaded gun and commit political and racial violence; though the police were on notice of that violence they weren’t there to protect us.
The lifelong scars and injuries, loss of an internal organ, mental anguish and trauma will be with me forever – and in a couple of years Martinez will live free.
I don’t want to end with the anger I feel inside. I want to express that Indigenous prayers and lifeways work. Pueblo people will always stand together and maintain a continuity of resistance to white supremacy and the destruction of the Earth.
Johns, who is of Hopi and Akimel O’odham tribal ancestry, was severely wounded in the attack. In a statement released after the deal was announced, he expressed disappointment, saying that the crime scarred him for life and that he believes it was motivated by hate.
The events as they would have been presented at trial seemed clear, and the violence marking that day was caught on video. Martinez showed up at a peaceful protest organized by activists who opposed the proposed re-installation — in a courtyard at the Rio Arriba County Complex in Española — of a huge statue depicting Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador (1550-1626) with a deserved reputation for extreme cruelty. Oñate, whose military career took place during the era when what is now New Mexico was part of New Spain, is infamous for the Acoma Massacre, a brutal 1599 assault on residents of Acoma Pueblo in which hundreds of Native people were killed.
Searchlight New Mexico was not planning to cover daily developments in the trial, but in the past we’ve published essays that flesh out the complex patterns of history and conflict that were at the heart of this case. For many Indigenous people, Oñate is a monster who should not be honored with public statuary. But for some in northern New Mexico who identify as Spanish and valorize histories of conquest, removal of the statue — which was originally mounted in the town of Alcalde, and was taken down in 2020 during protests over the murder of George Floyd — represents the erasure of an important historical figure who deserves to be remembered.
These century-old differences remain alive, and they were expected to affect the trial — it was assumed by the presiding judge, Jason Lidyard, that it would be difficult to find objective jurors. According to a report about the plea deal in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Marshall Ray, an attorney representing Martinez, said there was “a high risk of mistrial” because opinions about the protest were “heavily corroded with [individuals’] feelings and preconceived biases.”
In “Race and class in New Mexico,” an essay about these tensions first published by Searchlight last November, Deborah Jackson Taffa focused on how disputes over Oñate highlight “centuries-old prejudices that have never been exorcised.” In “Rest in pieces,” published in December 2020, Alicia Inez Guzmán provided deep context and analysis about the controversial destruction by protestors of the Soldiers’ Monument in the Santa Fe Plaza. Both are invaluable introductions to history that remains crucial to a full understanding of modern New Mexico.
Race and class in New Mexico
A personal essay unraveling the complexities of identity in light of recent violence at an Oñate rally
by Deborah Jackson Taffa November 9, 2023
Rest in pieces
For a century and a half, the Soldier’s Monument’s glorification of violence divided residents. Even after being destroyed by protestors, it continues to cause rifts and expose the chasms of resentment and pain that New Mexicans have carried for centuries.
by Alicia Inez Guzmán December 29, 2020
Thank you for in-depth coverage on these important social justice issues.
Justice was not served. For neither victim of this hate crime. There was not the political will to prosecute it as a hate crime and the police who saw the actions and did nothing are guilty of dereliction of duty. It is not that something went wrong, it is that the deck is stacked to keep the racist and colonial systems in place.