Osmanny Montano, a 34-year-old Hispanic man and U.S. Army veteran, was shot and killed in his home in Miami, Florida, on March 10, 2019. Sources close to the case stated Montano had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He and his wife, Aimee Martinez, had been married for less than five months at the time of his death.
On that Sunday morning, around 7:30 a.m., a verbal dispute between the couple at their residence in the Oasis Condominiums in Southwest Miami-Dade escalated. Martinez, then 31 years old, called 911 and told the operator she had shot her husband. When police and paramedics arrived, they found Montano with gunshot wounds to his neck and chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The couple's child, who was two years old, was in the room when the shooting occurred.
Martinez told investigators she had acted in self-defense. She claimed Montano was experiencing a PTSD episode, screaming at her, throwing keys, and hitting himself in the face.
She said she went to the master bedroom and retrieved her .40-caliber handgun from a clothes basket. According to her account, Montano followed her into the room, discovered the gun, and attacked her to get it away from her. Martinez stated she shot him twice while he was on top of her. Paramedics who evaluated Martinez found no visible injuries, and she was released that night after being questioned by detectives.
For more than four years, homicide detectives continued to investigate. The physical evidence, they later concluded, completely refuted Martinez’s version of events. A firearms analyst determined that a pillow had been folded over the gun when it was fired. Investigators also noted that the location of blood in the room, the trajectories of the gunshots, and the lack of gunshot residue near Montano's wounds were inconsistent with her self-defense claim. In June 2023, Aimee Martinez was arrested.
Though initially arrested on a first-degree murder charge, Martinez was ultimately charged with second-degree murder, to which she pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys later petitioned a judge to dismiss the case under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. During a court hearing, the defense argued Martinez was in fear for her life and presented a toxicology report showing Montano had cocaine, methadone, and other drugs in his system at the time of his death. Prosecutors countered, pointing to evidence such as the pillow with soot and burn marks as proof that the shooting was not self-defense. The case remains in litigation.
