Is Juan Martinez Married? - Camille Gives the Answer

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If you watch the Jodi Arias trial - the formerly blonde bombshell who killed her lover 3 different ways - you not only know who Juan Martinez is, you have an opinion of him. 

Martinez is the diminutive prosecutor with the giant personality. I live tweet from inside the Jodi Arias 
courtroom and twitter demands brevity, so I always refer to him as simply, "Juan." 

Juan Martinez looks at Jodi Arias video on the monitor on the prosecution table

His first name has been co-opted by the web, anyway, as fans frequently refer to him as "Juanderful," "Juantastic," and other clever puns showing enthusiastic admiration for the short, slender man who displays the cerebral machismo of a Captain Kirk, with an identically equal commitment to justice and to winning.

Instead of zooming from galaxy to galaxy setting wrongs to right wherever he goes, Juan Martinez dashes from courtroom to courtroom discharging his considerable energy like a phaser set to stun on witnesses and defendants who don't know what hit them.

Juan is unabashedly aggressive in the courtroom, mocking witnesses, raising his voice, never letting a single point go by unchallenged.  Now that he has a worldwide television audience, it turns out the ladies love him for it. 

Some of the most commonly used search terms now to find this blog are, "Is Juan Martinez married?" or "Juan Martinez wife?" or "Juan Martinez available?"

Sometimes I have answered that question directly to commenters who post the question in the trails. I figured it was time I made it easier to find the answer with a post of its own.

Ladies, Juan Martinez is NOT married.

Now for the bad news: he is not single, either. 

Juan Martinez is in a long-term relationship with someone who fell for that terrier-like charisma of his long before he was famous.  She has been keeping a close eye on the trial, closer than you would think, but you haven't seen her.

Why am I being so coy about naming her or giving more info about her?  Because they are. Well before fame came into their lives, Juan and his lady love guarded their privacy carefully.  With the unrelenting glare of TV cameras from all over the world converged on him every day all day, their privacy for their personal lives is even more sweet and I will not be the one to break it for them.

I will tell you that she is as smitten with him as you are and speaks of him with great fondness and admiration. So you can all rest assured that he is treated well and given his due portion of loving companionship.

I can also tell you that he is incredibly lucky to have her, as well. She is physically just gorgeous. She is highly educated. She has considerable professional accomplishments of her own. I guarantee you would all like her.

Juan Martinez was not a national figure before the Jodi Arias trial but to those of us who have been in the Maricopa County courthouse for many years before Jodi ever tried on her first pair of jail stripes, he has been a familiar figure, handling many of the most sensational murder trials in this county. Some of us know his better half, most do not. 

Juan also happens to be a polarizing figure. Some consider him a bully, not a bulldog. I've even had commenters on this blog suggest the temper he displays in court is a symptom of a scary man and fear he may even be dangerous as a partner.

I can say unequivocally that is a bizarre accusation of the wildest kind. Without having actually taken her clothes off for any forensic exam, I can tell you I have seen his sweetheart often enough and know enough about her to assure you she is no shrinking violet and displays all the qualities of one of the most capable women you could ever meet. Frankly, she could probably best him in a physical confrontation--not that such a thing has ever happened!--because of both her character and his small size. In other words, if you dressed them both in WWF scary outfits and dropped them in a ring together, I wouldn't know which one to bet on. So please put that ridiculous thought out of your mind. Feel free to dislike Juan, but don't worry about his private life or his loved ones.

But most of you adore him. You can't get enough of him. You will be sorry to hear that during the Jodi Arias trial, a TV production company that was working on a piece about one of my cases was having a hard time reaching him. I was able to help them out by passing on their message to him in person in the hallways. 

Unfortunately, the Chandler Police Department ruined your chances of seeing Juan on TV for that particular story because they refused to cooperate, so the TV crew had to kill the story.  It was the Jamie Laiaddee case, which is my story "Trophy Wife" in Masters of True Crime. In that case, your favorite prosecutor got some measure of satisfaction for another grieving family, remarkable because the body has never been found, making it a far more difficult a case than Jodi's. Not only no body, but no crime scene has ever been found, either. Rick Valentini, the man on trial, maintained that Jamie is still alive and has simply left town on her own.  

But Juan Martinez ninja-ed his way through that enormous obstacle and got Valentini convicted of 2nd degree murder. Valentini will be wearing an orange jumpsuit for the better part of the next 50 years. 

Juan Martinez has prosecuted many interesting cases and I will feature more of them. Here's one of the more bizarre. < < click

Just a sliver of the crowd in front of the courthouse on Jodi Arias verdict day, as seen from the KPNX set

So many of you have discovered this fiery and focused prosecutor through the Jodi Arias trial. You have fallen in love with his saying to witnesses what you wish you could say to them yourselves. You've been impressed with his tight control of his case and his always-ready organization skills. You've admired his passionate speeches to the jury, in which he used no notes and spoke for hours from the facts and points in his head. You loved him when he pointed at Jodi and called her "a liar and killer." 

You consider yourself his biggest fan. 

Just remember, he does have one fan who is even more ardent and committed than you are. She's proud that all you ladies admire him from afar.  She's amused that he's become a rock star to you.

But mostly she's very happy she found him first. 

(If she ever gives me permission, I will "introduce" you to her. But I won't out her, so don't ask! To the few who think she is me, she isn't. Really. Don't get me in trouble with her, please.)

**Link to this or any post is always welcome, but posting the whole text to another site makes me go all frowny!**

Update on Trophy Wife -- Rick Valentini/Jamie Laiaddee

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Rick Valentini was a charming fitness instructor who kept lots of secrets.  I featured him in my story The Trophy Wife in the Masters of True Crime anthology.  At the time that book went to press, Valentini had been convicted of certain crimes.  Since that time he has gone through another trial, this one for murder.

Rick Valentini is no a guest of the State of Arizona 

Inmate 268586
R VALENTINI

Even though Jamie Laiaddee's body has never been found, a Grand Jury indicted Valentini for Second Degree Murder in her disappearance.  Bail was set for $2,000,000.00  But Valentini was already in custody on other charges.

The jury that convicted Valentini of several dozen charges, some of them related to Jamie, was never told of her disappearance.  They convicted Valentini without hearing from her. Though convicted, the judge withheld sentencing for now.

A few months later, Rick Valentini went on trial for the 2nd Degree Murder of Jamie. He faced an entirely new jury.  Valentini's lawyer, the same Marie Farney from the other trial, had notified the court of defenses ranging from "Alibi" to "Lack of Specific Intent."

Arizona is one of the few states that allow jurors to ask questions from the jury box. But the questions must be approved by the judge, after conferring with both sides, before they can be put to the witness. When Rick Valentini aka Bryan Stewart took the stand to defend himself in the murder trial, they wanted to ask plenty.

Valentini told the jurors Jaimie was still alive and he had sporadically communicated with her since her disappearance, including carrying out transactions such as reimbursing her for some things and being given permission to use her credit cards. In their questions, jurors wanted to know more details about these alleged interactions and such things as what types of her clothing were missing, e.g. "work clothes," "warm clothes," etc.  The court allowed many of these questions.

But one juror question that was not allowed was, "Why do you think Jamie is not here to defend you?"

This is the actual verdict form

Rick Valentini, who had persuaded so many others to buy his stories, was unable to convince this jury. They convicted him of the 2nd Degree Murder charge as well as of more fraud.   Two days before Christmas, he was sentenced to a total of 42 years in prison--consecutive.

The delayed sentencing from his first trial could now go forward. In a mixture of consecutive and concurrent prison terms, Rick Valentini was sentenced to more years behind behind bars. Although he was not technically sentenced to life in prison, effectively he has been.

Valentini is currently serving out his sentence in the complex of prisons in the Arizona town of Florence. If he served it all, he would be released around the age of 92.

But Valentini is appealing his convictions. As he told the probation officer preparing his pre-sentence report, "it is in my best interest not to make a statement, other than the fact that she (Jaimiee Laiaddee) is alive and I didn't kill her."

At Jamie's abandoned house in Chandler, police had not found blood spatter or any other sign of a struggle or overt violence.  Not a trace of her body has ever been found. Prosecuting a murder case without a body is extremely difficult. How did the victim die? Was there criminal intent involved? Or, as Valentini continues to claim, could the person even possibly still be alive?  It happened in 2003 in Australia, when teenager Natasha Ryan stepped out on to the world stage in the middle of her supposed murderer's trial. She'd been missing for years; Leonard Fraser had even confessed to killing her; but she'd really been living as a runaway.

The sudden re-appearance of the "dead" person is extremely rare, though. Maybe one or two a century, it seems.

But no-body cases, when they do go to court,  have a high conviction rate. .  The case of Rick Valentini and Jamie Laiaddee demonstrates why. Uncovering all Rick's secrets and examining Jamie's well-established reliability shows that sometimes the truth is glaringly obvious, even when a seemingly vital piece is missing.

Shortly before the book Masters of True Crime was released, CBS 48 Hours/Mystery did a show on Rick Valentini and Jamie Laiaddee. Their episode is called "Stranger Beside Me."  As is to be expected, reporter Erin Moriarty took a different angle in reporting than I did.  She and her crew have some great footage of Jamie, when she was alive and happy.  They have lots of great video. But the extensive comment thread below the show reveals that some viewers have lots of questions still. It just so happens that my story, The Trophy Wife, covers the material that Erin Moriarty did not. And vice versa, she covers what I didn't have space for.

CBS viewers should know that in The Trophy Wife, you find out more on:

•  Rick's bizarre childhood
•  His history with Aunt Donna (who appears in the 48 Hours show)
• Why Jamie didn't leave "Bryan"
• Why cops (and the jury) are convinced she is now dead
• The wacky story of T.J., Rick's new "friend"
• Why Jamie's friends, who truly did love her, did not know she was missing
• What "Bryan" and Jamie were quietly doing while those photos were shot at the U. of M.

If you saw the story on CBS 48 Hours, do yourself a favor and read the rest of the evidence. You'll find it in this book. 

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