TORRINGTON – The Goshen County Circuit Court met mid-Thursday morning for the change of plea hearing for Torrington man, Fabian Martinez.

Martinez had been charged along with his brother Jesus, under Wyoming state statute for conspiracy to commit battery on Torrington man, Juan DeLeon on June 11, 2023.

The event left DeLeon with significant head and facial injuries requiring immediate medical attention after four assailants, two holding baseball bats, had assaulted him.

Additionally, Jesus Martinez had been given a five-to-seven-year suspended prison sentence for his role in the assault, while being required to serve nine months in county jail.

Presiding over the proceedings was circuit court Judge Nathaniel Hibben, with newly appointed Deputy and Goshen County Prosecuting Attorney Ken Brown representing the State of Wyoming.

Representing the defense of Martinez was Wyoming public defender Eric Palen.

Although Martinez was initially scheduled for trial to begin Friday, July 19, both defense representation and prosecution reached a plea agreement prompting the defendant to change his original plea from not guilty to guilty.

The hearing began with Judge Hibben requiring the current stance of state prosecution before hearing the defendant’s new plea.

Prosecuting attorney Brown was the first to address the court.

“In exchange for the defendant’s guilty plea of conspiracy to commit battery, the state would recommend the defendant receive a sentence of 180 days with the entire sentence suspended and be given credit for any time already served,” Brown began. “We would further request the court post a probation of one year, and to include a provision where he makes restitution in the amount of $2429. That amount should be joined in with Jesus Martinez.”

After hearing the current stance of the state, the court required comments and wishes based on the contrary to the prosecution on where the defense stood in regard to charges.

“My client would be required to pay his restitution, and has done a pretty good job thus far,” Palen said. “He’s working, and my client will pay restitution as quickly as possible.”

Judge Hibben addressed the defendant after comments by the defense and the prosecution.

“Understand there is a plea agreement and I will ask you now at this time for the charge of conspiracy to commit battery, how do you plead?” Hibben asked.

The defendant quietly spoke into his microphone and replied, “Guilty, Your Honor.”

“When you plead guilty, you need to tell me some facts,” Hibben responded. “So, I need more facts to support your plea.”

The court required the mandatory procedure of the defense council to ask factual questions before entering a plea of not guilty.

“Mr. Martinez, do you agree on about June 11, 2023, you conspired with your brother Jesus Martinez to commit a battery upon Juan DeLeon?” Palen asked. “And do you agree as part of that conspiracy you conspired or planned with Jesus to physically batter and possibly cause injury to Juan DeLeon? Do you agree that was within the confines of Goshen County?”

The defendant answered all preceding questions in the affirmative.

“The agreement was my client would have 180 days suspended sentence,” Palen continued. “He has already spent seven days in jail. We would ask my client to be on unsupervised probation for one year and agree this entails mostly not having any more trouble. My client would agree to that.”

Judge Hibben firmly addressed Martinez’s claim. However, the agreement was going to be accepted by the court, the charges were merely one layer to a very long and complicated history between both the defendant and his family toward the victim.

“I certainly understand there is more to the story, and I also know there were others before me which were concluded in district court as well,” Hibben said. “What I’m going to do is follow the plea agreement and your judgment sentence will be as follows. You will have 180 days in jail, with credit for seven and the remaining 173 suspended. The rules of your probation will be to live a law-abiding life, and you have done that before on your bond. Good for you. Your assessments will be a total of $470. I will assess the very reasonable public defender fee as you do not have the ability to pay the state. That will be waived. Restitution will be awarded in the amount of $2429, and that is to be joined with Jesus Martinez as was ordered in District Court. Joint separation means you are both responsible and all of it needs to be collected. It can be 50-50 it makes no difference. I expect restitution to be paid very quickly, and the bills have to be paid due to the conduct you have pleaded guilty to. Something you did.”

As part of the defendant’s probation, Judge Hibben set a deadline for restitution to be paid to the victim after hearing the defendant’s wish to follow a proposed payment plan of $200 a month.

As Judge Hibben explained, this was not going to be sufficient in the eyes of the court.

“Two hundred a month will not get it paid in one year, that’s not enough,” Hibben continued. “You have to have everything fully paid within one year of today’s date. You will have to get to work and start making payments. As soon as you have paid that part of your probation is done. It’s one less thing and one less rule you have to follow, and that will conclude the case. Good luck and make sure you don’t come back.”

The court then stood in recess.