Baldomero Martinez De Jesus was 58 years old when he died on Tuesday, October 6, 2020, in the Historic South-Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near 315 West Vernon Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case.
He was a Latino man in his late 50s, recorded under both of his family names, Martinez and De Jesus, as is common in Latino naming traditions. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Baldomero Martinez De Jesus has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was beaten in a fight, attacked by a stranger, assaulted indoors or on the street, or struck by a vehicle, all of which can lead to a finding of blunt force trauma. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Historic South-Central lies just south of downtown Los Angeles, east of the Harbor Freeway, and is one of the oldest and most densely populated parts of the city. Vernon Avenue crosses it a few blocks from Central Avenue, which in the first half of the 20th century was the heart of Black Los Angeles and its jazz scene. Today the neighborhood is overwhelmingly Latino, with many immigrant families from Mexico and Central America living in older houses, courtyard apartments and converted garages, alongside auto shops, small factories and corner markets. It is also one of the poorest areas of the city, and its residents have long said that violence there draws less attention than it would elsewhere.
Homicides rose sharply across Los Angeles County in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of relatively low numbers, and detectives were stretched across a growing caseload. Many of those killings were shootings that drew at least brief coverage on local television. The beating death of a 58-year-old man on Vernon Avenue, in the middle of the pandemic, does not appear to have been reported at all.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Baldomero Martinez De Jesus could be found in news archives or public records. Nearly six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who lives or works near the 300 block of West Vernon Avenue may remember a fight, an argument or a police response in early October 2020, and anyone who knew him may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
