Denver court exonerates man convicted of shaken baby murder

A judge in central Colorado ruled Tuesday to dismiss a first-degree murder conviction nearly 30 years after the fact. Stephen Martinez was convicted of murdering a 4-month-old infant in his care in 1998, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2000. Colorado District Court Judge Andrew Luxen vacated the conviction and dismissed the charges Tuesday, according to a statement from Colorado District Attorney John Walsh.

Martinez initially told investigators that the child, Heather Lynn Mares, started choking after he gave her a bottle to soothe her crying. However, medical officials determined that the child showed evidence of shaken baby syndrome. Martinez initially confessed to the crime, which he later recanted.

Martinez’s case bounced around various state courts and was initially overturned by the state appeals cort in 2001, before the state’s supreme court reinstated the sentence in 2003. The Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado Boulder championed Martinez’s case, insisting he did not receive a fair trial.

Wasn’t this case taking place in Texas? A similar case out of Texas made headlines several times in recent years. Robert Roberson was convicted in 2003 of killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, and has repeatedly insisted his innocence while appealing his case. Roberson brought the child to a local hospital after she stopped breathing, and medical staffers found the child had somehow received bruises and brain trauma. The Texas Supreme Court issued a 2024 stay of execution in Roberson’s case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued an execution pause order the following year.

Dig deeper: Read my last report for more background on Roberson’s case.