Huntington Beach man’s murder trial begins

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys appeared to agree: Vladimir Benitez, 28, stabbed his roommate 15 times on Halloween of 2005 in the Huntington Beach apartment where they both rented living room space. Victim Enrique Santiago Martinez died soon after.

Where their stories part is what that means. Both sides made opening arguments Thursday on the first day of Benitez’ trial. While prosecutor Sonia Balleste told the jury the facts add up to a cold-blooded murder, defense attorney David Wooden said there were doubts about Benitez’ sanity. While ascertaining Benitez’ mental status comes in a different phase of the trial, Wooden said his irrationality made it hard to prove the intentional malice required for murder.

Benitez had been told by their landlord to leave the apartment by the end of the month, and he came in about midnight on the final day of October to kill his roommate in his sleep, Balleste said. A knife with Benitez’ DNA on the handle and Martinez’ blood on the blade was found behind the apartment, where residents saw a silhouette running off shortly after the stabbing, she said.

Benitez ultimately turned himself in, but in talking to cops he “changed his story” multiple times, Balleste said. At first he accused his landlady of witchcraft, then said Martinez had called him a homosexual slur and insulted his manhood, then said Martinez had pulled out a knife at him, and finally told police he took the knife from the kitchen and stabbed Martinez, Balleste said.

“He told police, ‘His [expletive] life doesn’t matter to me,’” Balleste said.

But Wooden called his client’s actions – and his conflicting stories – those of a man beset by delusions. A psychologist has diagnosed him with schizophrenia and other possible disorders, he said. And a methamphetamine habit at the time may have pushed his mind into psychosis, he added.

“He sort of seems to drift in and out of rationality,” Wooden said. “You don’t know what to accept as real, what to accept as delusional, what to accept as potentially deceitful.”

Relatives had seen Benitez acting oddly long before the killing, pacing aimlessly or riding his bike in circles at night, Wooden said. And the first thing Benitez told police when they picked him up was that their landlady was a witch and had caused Martinez’ death by casting a spell, Wooden added.

“He goes into great detail about how she had put spells on him and engaged in witchcraft,” he said. “He says she’s taking pictures of him, that she has someone on the roof taking pictures of him. He says she’s stolen his undergarments and used them in a spell.”

But Balleste told jurors Benitez understood what he’d done, telling a family friend the next day that he was in trouble.

“The defendant told her he had a problem, and he told her he didn’t know where to go,” she said. “He asked how much a plane ticket to Mexico cost.”

The trial will continue Monday morning.