We asked you to make the call last month: Is Max Danilo Martinez a serial rapist or, as his defense attorney claimed, a roadside romeo of females who despite not knowing one another later lied about being attacked by the Corona 33-year-old. Never mind. A Santa Ana jury made the call for you. Martinez is guilty—and not of being a roadside romeo.
Max Danilo Martinez: Serial Rapist or Roadside Romeo. You Make the Call!
When Martinez was initially charged in January 2010, there were two female victims who he plied with alcohol before raping them: a 14-year-old girl and 24-year-old woman. For those attacks, he faced up to 15 years in state prison if convicted.
Man Accused of Getting Teen and Woman Drunk and Then Raping Them—9 Years Apart
But those sexual assaults were nine years apart, a lifetime for rapists not to have pulled their sick acts on other victims. Sure enough, after Martinez was charged and prosecutors put out the call for other possible victims, other teens and women came forward to say he had attacked them in similar fashion.
For the sexual assaults of the females ages 14, 17, 18 (two different women) and 24, Martinez was convicted Monday on three felony counts of forcible rape, one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object by force, one felony count of rape of an unconscious person, and sentencing enhancement allegations for sexual crimes against multiple victims.
He now faces a minimum state-prison sentence of 63 years to life—and a maximum of 68 years to life—at a scheduled Aug. 16 hearing in Santa Ana.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict for a sixth woman, age 23, which would have added additional felony counts of forcible rape, sexual penetration by foreign object by force and oral copulation by force.
Martinez must also register as a sex offender for life.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.