20 Oct Defense Expert Describes Rogelio Martinez Jr.’s Troubled Childhood as Sentencing Continues

Testimony from a defense expert Tuesday painted a picture of a childhood defined by instability, abuse, neglect, poverty and mental illness for Rogelio Martinez Jr., 21, as the sentencing phase over the death of San Benito police Lt. Milton Resendez continued, according to The Brownsville Herald.

Martinez was convicted of capital murder Oct. 8, with the jury deliberating roughly 3¼ hours. Resendez, who spent 27 years with San Benito police, was shot Oct. 17, 2023, following a pursuit that lasted hours, started on South Padre Island, passed through Brownsville and ended in San Benito. Martinez pleaded not guilty. Rodrigo Axel Espinosa Valdez, 26, a Mexican national charged in the case, earlier pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of murder. The state wants a death sentence.

Jurors will answer three questions, ValleyCentral reported: whether Martinez is likely to keep committing violent acts; whether he caused Resendez’s death, or meant to kill someone or expected a death to result; and whether mitigating factors justify life in prison over death. The defense says it aims to show a difficult upbringing and to keep the worst thing Martinez ever did from defining him.

Dr. Antolin Llorente, a neuropsychologist who evaluated Martinez, said Child Protective Services records show more than 75 encounters starting in Martinez’s first year of life. He said Martinez spent stretches in foster care or without a home and bounced between 17 schools. At 12, DHR Health in Edinburg admitted him for depression, where doctors diagnosed disruptive mood disorder and prescribed medication. Llorente said Martinez took it on and off because his grandmother couldn’t always afford to bring him to visits.

Llorente told jurors Martinez’s brain was not yet fully formed when Resendez was killed, and that a developing brain doesn’t function like an adult’s. He also said Martinez suffers brain damage that he traced to being abused, neglected and underfed as a child. A former neighbor Llorente interviewed described the household as chaotic and recalled Martinez and his sister turning up to ask for food.

Llorente counted 10 mental-health diagnoses plus more than nine medications across Martinez’s life, and described heavy mental illness running through the family. No case in his three decades of practice has compared, he said. He put Martinez’s condition as either recurrent major depressive disorder with psychotic features or unspecified bipolar disorder, but didn’t pick one, citing about 10 hours spent examining him.

Prosecutors finished their case Monday afternoon, and ValleyCentral counted 14 witnesses on their side. Texas Ranger Patrick O’Conner, the lead investigator, was the first to testify. He said Martinez was tied to no fewer than five vehicle thefts, with social media messages investigators retrieved suggesting he helped move the cars across the border to Matamoros. O’Conner also linked Martinez to the Gulf Cartel through a Facebook friendship with a man he described as a leader in its auto-theft operation, but acknowledged on cross-examination that he found no messages or other contact between the two.

O’Conner said photos and cloud-stored files show Martinez with AR-style rifles, one possibly from as early as age 13, and that messages covered drugs, gun deals and invitations into criminal activity. He added that Martinez showed no remorse when told Resendez had died, shedding no tears and only smiling.

Vanessa Acero, a gang investigator at the Cameron County jail, testified that Martinez told her he joined the Westside street gang as a 13-year-old and, in 2025, that he was a Raza Unida prospect. Sheriff’s Office floor sergeant Juan Antonio Gonzalez Jr. testified that Martinez once tried to dig through his cell wall toward the street outside, and that after being found with a handcuff key he quipped he could easily get another. A Texas prison-system official described how inmates are classified and what conditions come with each classification.