On Tuesday morning July 15th 38 year old Mathew Aaron Valadez was heading out on his morning run before heading to work at 6:30 AM. Not far from his home he was struck from behind by a vehicle driven by Maria Isabel Martinez. Miss Martinez proceeded to drive away from the scene without stopping to aid Mr. Valadez. She drove away and did not call 911. 30 minutes later a passerby called 911 and Emergency Medical personnel were dispatched to the location where Mr. Valadez was pronounced dead at the scene. There is a fire station only ten blocks away and paramedics could have been on the scene within 3 minutes. Miss Martinez did make a couple of phone calls, but they were to friends and she was complaining about the damage to her car. She later drove the vehicle to a repair shop to have the damage repaired and to cover up all of the evidence. She has denied hitting Mr Valadez and says she hit a telephone pole. Lubbock Police got a crime line tip to the location of the vehicle and matched evidence, found at the scene of the crime, to the suspects damaged vehicle. The Lubbock District Attorney has charged Miss Martinez with second degree failure to render aid causing death. The maximum penalty for this charge would be 20 years incarceration. Since Miss Martinez fled the scene we will never know whether she was under the influence or not so the charges could have potentially been more severe. As we all have seen far too many times the legal system has allowed guilty parties to make plea bargains to drastically reduce their sentence. In reality Miss Martinez could be allowed to plea out a deal with the DA’s office and serve virtually no real time at all. Only a lengthy probation and some token jail time. As voters and taxpayers in this county and state, we the undersigned feel that an example must be set in this case and that Miss Martinez should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and that no plea bargain should be allowed.
