Diego Martinez was 27 years old when he was fatally stabbed early on Saturday, October 6, 2012, in the city of San Fernando, in the northeast San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds after being attacked in the 1100 block of First Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau, which assisted the San Fernando Police Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report said that, according to the sheriff's department, Martinez "was stabbed after an argument with another man in a parking lot around 2:30 a.m." The Times added that "The suspect, believed to be a Latino man, then fled the scene." Martinez was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Daily News, drawing on a City News Service report published three days later, gave a few more details.
The stabbing happened "in the rear parking lot of a San Fernando business," about 2:20 a.m., said Deputy Don Walker of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau. "During the argument, the suspect stabbed the victim with a knife, then fled," Walker said. The paper reported that no arrests had been made and that sheriff's homicide detectives were assisting San Fernando police.
An online obituary listing gives a small glimpse of his life. It says Diego Martinez was born on November 25, 1984, in Mission Hills, California, to his mother, Teresa Mendoza. He was a young man of the northeast Valley, born just a few miles from where he died.
Much is still unknown. The public record does not say what the argument was about, whether the two men knew each other, or which business the parking lot belonged to. It does not describe the suspect beyond his ethnicity, and it does not say whether there were other people in the lot at that hour. A business parking lot in the early morning hours suggests that others may have been nearby, perhaps leaving after a night out, but no witness account was ever published.
San Fernando is a small independent city completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. It has its own city government and its own police department, and it has long been a center of Mexican American life in the San Fernando Valley.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Diego Martinez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 13 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was in or near the parking lots along the 1100 block of First Street in San Fernando in the early hours of October 6, 2012, or who heard talk afterward about an argument there, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
