A judge on Friday ordered an attempted murder trial for a New Mexico man accused in the shooting of a Native American activist amid confrontations about aborted plans to reinstall a statue of a Spanish conquistador outside a government office.
The shooting wounded Jacob Johns, of Spokane, Washington, a well-traveled activist for environmental causes and an advocate for Native American rights who is of Hopi and Akimel O’odham tribal descent. “Mr. Martinez’s intentional acts of attempting to enter into an area of counter protesters, whether or not it was a public area, would lead a reasonable person in his same circumstances to know that it would cause provocation,” Lidyard said at a county courthouse in rural northern New Mexico. That he “would intentionally provoke them while knowing full well that he was carrying a concealed firearm is sufficient to find probable cause for attempted murder in the first degree.
“Fearing for his life because he was so outnumbered by all these men, he pulled his firearm that he possessed lawfully — he had a concealed carry permit — and he fired one shot at Mr. Johns in self-defense,” she said.
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