In the early morning hours of April 29, 2017, the life of 28-year-old Maurice Dominique Martinez, a male from Indianapolis, Indiana, was tragically cut short. Inside an apartment on Portage Court, on the city's southeast side, Martinez was shot multiple times. First responders rushed him to Eskenazi Hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he died shortly after his arrival.
The incident that led to his death would soon become the focus of a homicide investigation that would uncover a story of a plea deal rejected and a claim of self-defense that ultimately did not sway a jury.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detectives quickly identified a suspect in the shooting. Briana Michelle Wilson, a 27-year-old woman, was taken into custody and faced a murder charge for her alleged role in Martinez's death. As the case moved through the legal system, the narrative of what transpired in the apartment began to take shape. Wilson had initially agreed to a plea deal, intending to plead guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. This agreement would have capped her executed sentence at fifteen years. However, the proceedings took a dramatic turn during the sentencing hearing for the plea agreement.
When it came time to provide a factual basis for her plea, Wilson told the court that she had shot Martinez in self-defense while he was attacking her. This claim led the judge to reject the plea agreement, stating that her testimony raised the issue of self-defense, which was inconsistent with a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter. Consequently, the case was reset for a jury trial where Wilson would once again face the original murder charge.
During the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that painted a different picture from Wilson's claim of self-defense. The jury heard testimony that Martinez had been shot twice in the back, a detail that cast doubt on the assertion that he was the aggressor at the moment he was shot. Wilson's defense team argued for a jury instruction on self-defense, which the court granted. However, her request for an instruction on the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter was denied, as the judge determined there was no significant evidence to suggest she had acted in a 'sudden heat.' After considering all the evidence, the jury found Briana Michelle Wilson guilty of the murder of Maurice Martinez. The court subsequently sentenced her to a term of fifty-five years in prison, with ten of those years suspended. An appeal of her conviction was later affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Indiana.
