Joseph David Martinez was 49 years old when he was killed in the early morning of Thursday, August 13, 2009, in Harbor Gateway. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 12000 block of South Figueroa Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's South Bureau Homicide unit.
According to the coroner's office, Martinez was slashed in the cheek and neck. Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner, told the Los Angeles Times that a broken beer bottle was used to kill him. The attack happened at 12:25 a.m., and Martinez was pronounced dead at a hospital at 1:14 a.m., less than an hour later, Winter said.
LA Weekly, which tracked each killing in the city that year, reported that the man stabbed on August 13 had died "following an alleged gang-related scuffle." No further details about that scuffle were published.
The reports do not say who else was involved, whether Martinez knew the person who attacked him, or whether police ever identified a suspect. Nothing released says why he was on Figueroa Street after midnight, or whether anyone stayed with him until help arrived.
Martinez was born on August 29, 1959, and he died about two weeks before his 50th birthday. A memorial page set up through Guerra and Gutierrez Mortuary, a funeral home on Beverly Boulevard in East Los Angeles, gives those dates, and a guest book in his name appears on Legacy.com. Beyond that, almost nothing about his life has been made public. Joseph Martinez is also a common name, and searches turned up many other men who share it, including a New York murder suspect and men in Colorado, none of whom has any link to this death.
Harbor Gateway is a long, narrow strip of the City of Los Angeles that runs south from the South Los Angeles area toward the harbor. It was annexed by the city in the early 1900s to connect downtown with the port at San Pedro, and for most of its length it is only a few blocks wide. Its northern end is a working-class area of small homes, apartments, auto shops and commercial strips, close to the Harbor Freeway.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Joseph Martinez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 16 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on South Figueroa Street in Harbor Gateway shortly after midnight on August 13, 2009, or who heard someone talk about a fight 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
