Witness says he found man ‘standing there with a gun’ at his Ottawa home

Ottawa detectives scoured the scene of a Nov. 2 home invasion and came away with no fingerprints, blood or DNA – nothing that would link Fernando Martinez directly to the armed break-in.

But Martinez’s trial isn’t over yet and La Salle County prosecutors told jurors they will, later this week, review surveillance footage in which they’ll hear the Ottawa man “regaling people with how he committed this crime.”

“And laughing about it like it’s all a big game,” prosecutor Matt Kidder said during opening statements Tuesday.

Home invasion carries six to 30 years in prison, with no possibility of probation, and he could be subject to a firearm enhancement that makes him eligible for up to 50 years.

Tuesday, witnesses took the stand in La Salle County Circuit Court described the break-in and ensuing investigation that showed at least two guns were discharged, leaving multiple shell casings at the scene.

A woman who resided at the home testified she was awakened by her barking, growling dog early Nov. 2, 2023. Soon after, intruders entered her bedroom. One put a gun to her head and demanded the combination to the “big gun safe” in her bedroom. She said she didn’t know the combination and the gunman struck her behind her left ear.

She was, however, able to send text messages to her live-in boyfriend. He raced home with two companions in tow. He entered the home with a .380 pistol retrieved from the woman’s car.

“There was a dude standing there with a gun,” the boyfriend testified, describing a “skinny” Hispanic man. “He told me to get the (expletive) down.”

The boyfriend testified he did not comply with the intruder but instead fired a shot at the Hispanic man. The individuals scattered and he fired a few rounds at a figure by a tree. He later surveyed the house and found his xBox game console was gone.

Who were the armed intruders? The witnesses couldn’t say and could only provide a sketchy description of a slightly-built Hispanic man. The men who’d ridden there with the boyfriend didn’t see much of anything.

But even without eyewitness testimony, prosecutors presented two pieces of circumstantial evidence that they believe could persuade jurors Martinez was at the scene.

First, Martinez was later found at Morris Hospital with a gunshot to his arm – along with a leaky story of having been shot at a party in Mazon, prosecutors said. Grundy County authorities had been alerted to no such incident and Martinez wouldn’t cooperate with the sheriff’s deputy who tried to investigate, prosecutors said.

Second, one of the boyfriend’s friends testified he’d once heard Martinez say “two or three years ago” that he wanted to rob the man.

But defense attorney Heidi Nelson said the gunshot didn’t directly place Martinez at the Ottawa home invasion. She also downplayed the witnesses’ statement, pointing out Martinez’s name never came up until the third time the witness was grilled by Ottawa police.

Nelson asked Ottawa Detective Sgt. Scott Harden whether crime scene technicians lifted DNA swabs or fingerprints from the scene or whether shoe impressions were linked to Martinez. Hardin acknowledged there is no such evidence.

Still to come is the surveillance footage in which Martinez allegedly “regaled” friends describing the home invasion and with the stolen xBox in plain view.

Nelson had argued in pre-trial hearings Martinez was surreptitiously taped and the resulting footage is inadmissible. Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. ruled against her; but Nelson still could object to the admission of the footage.

Nelson also will have to work around another adverse pre-trial ruling. Prosecutors successfully argued Martinez and other key players lied about their involvement and thus formed a “conspiracy” to thwart the investigation. That would allow prosecutors to admit some incriminating statements without running afoul of the hearsay rule.

The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Wednesday. A second suspect in the home invasion, Michael Boaz, awaits trial later this month.