A Spokane jury convicted a man Wednesday of murder for killing another man in a threesome gone wrong.
Jurors found Edward Martinez guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Anthony Brines.
Martinez, 22, was living in Spokane with his girlfriend and her husband at 903 E. Princeton Ave., where they lived together between June and August 2020, seemingly without any issues until the evening of Aug. 13. The three had been drinking alcohol and playing with a Ouija board when they agreed to have sex in the master bedroom, according to attorneys' retelling of the story earlier this week.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michael Jolstead argued on Monday that Martinez and the other two were involved in a series of poor decisions that night, but that, ultimately, it was Martinez who chose to get a knife and stab Brines about 20 times with the intent of killing him.
"This was a case about people who made choices," he said, "people who made silly choices, and people who made deadly choices."
Defense attorney Chris Bugbee told jurors on Monday that his client was manipulated and abused by Brines and his wife to a breaking point that caused him to lash out unexpectedly and violently that night. The end result was an unintentional fatal stabbing, Bugbee said.
Martinez, who was from Sacramento, first met Brines' wife on a dating app, according to court records.
Martinez knew he was moving into the home with Brines, but thought he was her ex-husband, Jolstead told jurors. Brines loved his wife, and because he did, he tried to befriend Martinez and to help him out, Jolstead said. By his accounts, "they were friends." But Brines wanted to reconcile with his wife, too.
"She chose to sleep with both men, whether for good or ill," he said. "She chose to not recognize there was some frustration."
The night of the killing, the three were drinking and smoking marijuana when they decided to play with the Ouija board in the master bedroom at about 3:30 a.m.
"Then things went bad," Jolstead said.
Martinez ended up stabbing Brines in the back five times.
Brines fell to his back, where he attempted to defend himself. He was stabbed about 15 more times on his front side, including on his face.
Martinez tried to get the wife to run away with him. She instead called police, who found Martinez in a nearby alleyway. He was cooperative and admitted to the killing.
"I started feeling a deeper anger inside of me, just building, building," Martinez told police.
Martinez did not testify during the trial.
Martinez, who was 19 at the time, later wrote an apology letter to Brines's wife.
Martinez's defense attorney, Bugbee, disputed Jolstead's interpretation of the events.
According to Bugbee, Martinez was under intense emotional pressure from his two sexual partners. Their escapade on that fateful night was what broke him, he told jurors.
Bugbee suggested that Brines' wife began a relationship with Martinez to get back at her husband, and that nobody was actually happy with the situation, despite the friendly appearances.
Brines "went along with the program so he could get his wife back," Bugbee said.
Both attorneys mentioned that Brines and his wife had been communicating behind Martinez's back, and that there were plans to send Martinez back to Sacramento with an airplane ticket. But Martinez didn't know any of this, Bugbee said.
He argued that Martinez did not intend to kill Brines, because the man did not have any wounds near his heart or neck.
Bugbee also argued that Martinez did not have a clear enough head to premeditate the murder.
Their game with the Ouija board likely made matters worse, Bugbee said, with Martinez saying he felt "like something overtook him" after playing the game.
Bugbee asked jurors to hold Martinez "appropriately responsible" for the death of Brines, but to not convict him of murder.
Jurors began their deliberation on Monday afternoon and returned a guilty verdict on Wednesday.
