WOODLAND — As his alleged victim continued to fight for her life in a hospital room, a Stockton man pleaded not guilty Thursday to attempted murder and other charges related to a drive-by shooting Saturday outside the girl’s home.
Sonny Rudy Martinez, 39, stood shackled in the holding cell of a Yolo County courtroom as more than a dozen relatives of 13-year-old Alize Valadez sought a glimpse of him — a man they say they’d never heard of before his arrest earlier this week.
“We’ve never seen him, and he looked at us and had no sympathy,” Alize’s sister Bianca Valadez said outside the courthouse after the brief arraignment hearing, her arms around her grandmother, Hope Penunuri, who discovered Alize’s injuries shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday.
“We need to know why he did this,” Penunuri said.
In addition to attempted murder, Martinez is charged with shooting at an inhabited dwelling, and both counts carry enhancements alleging participation in criminal street-gang activity, intentional discharge of a firearm, discharge of a firearm from a vehicle and infliction of great bodily injury.
He also faces case enhancements for prior prison terms in 1994, for a Sacramento County kidnapping conviction, and in 2007, for a federal court conviction on charges that were not disclosed in the charging document.
Yolo Superior Court records show he also faced drug- and weapon-related charges in this county in 1999, but the case was dismissed following his completion of a diversion program.
Commissioner Kent O’Mara ordered Martinez back to court on Nov. 13 for a preliminary hearing, and set a Nov. 9 status conference to determine whether the attorneys will be ready to proceed. Martinez, who is in custody on a no-bail hold, requested a public defender to represent him in court.
Hope Penunuri said Alize, who has lived with her since she was 4, was watching a movie inside the Solano Street house when the shooting occurred. Penunuri recalled that she had briefly gone into another room when she heard a “popping” sound coming from outside.
“I went over to her to see her lying on the couch,” Penunuri said. “She had blood running down her forehead.”
West Sacramento police said multiple shots hit the house, and one struck Alize in the head. Bianca Valadez said her younger sister remains in critical condition, comatose and on a ventilator, at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The motive for the shooting, if one has been established, has not been disclosed by investigators.
Known as “Zae Zae” to her family and friends, Alize Valadez is an eighth-grader at Riverbank High School. By Thursday, her classmates and other well-wishers had decorated Penunuri’s garage door and driveway with poster boards, candles, balloons and other mementos expressing love and support.
Her family says they have lived in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred for decades and have never experienced violence or felt a sense of fear before Saturday night.
“He took a piece of us,” Bianca Valadez said, recalling how her playful sister enjoyed riding on her back, even though she was the taller of the two. “I wish I could carry her now.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
