Dos Palos man convicted in 2012 stabbing death

A 23-year-old Dos Palos man pleaded no contest Tuesday to manslaughter in connection with the 2012 stabbing death of a man during a small house party.

Edwin C. Martinez received a nine-year prison sentence as part of an agreement reached with the Merced County District Attorney’s Office, according to Steve Slocum, the supervising deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Martinez, by accepting the plea agreement, avoided a potential life prison sentence. Judge Mark Bacciarini accepted Martinez’s change of plea Tuesday morning in Merced Superior Court.

Martinez was accused of killing 21-year-old Juan Carlos Cuadras on Jan. 5, 2012, outside a home in the 2000 block of Walnut Avenue in Dos Palos.

Slocum said the case for a murder conviction would have been challenging to prove in court based on a variety of factors, including key witnesses with criminal history, some of whom changed their stories over time.

Additionally, Slocum acknowledged, Martinez didn’t start the fight that led to the victim’s death.

Slocum said “an intoxicated female party goer,” who was a friend of the victim, instigated the incident. She yelled at Martinez and followed him down the street, the prosecutor said.

“It wasn’t until the victim and two of the victim’s male companions pursued the female that the stabbing occurred,” Slocum said.

Words were exchanged between the two groups and the woman, whose identity has not been released, tried to pat Martinez down for weapons, prosecutors said.

“The end result was that the victim was stabbed twice, once in the stomach and once in the arm,” Slocum said. “But for the actions of the intoxicated female party goer, this homicide would not have occurred.”

Slocum praised the work of Dos Palos police investigators in the case. He said a jury would most likely have reached the same conclusion as prosecutors regarding a manslaughter conviction.

“After several experienced prosecutors looked at the case, we came to a consensus that the likely outcome at trial would be a manslaughter conviction ... ,” Slocum said Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that, with credit for time he has already served in Merced, Martinez will be released in the summer of 2019 after serving 85 percent of his sentence.

This story was originally published August 4, 2015 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Dos Palos man convicted in 2012 stabbing death."