photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Alejandro Martinez-Diaz, left, and his defense attorney, Michael Clarke, are pictured at Martinez-Diaz's sentencing hearing on Aug. 10, 2023, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man was sentenced Thursday in Douglas County District Court to more than 10 years in prison in connection with a 2021 shooting in North Lawrence that left a woman with bullet fragments in her brain.

The man, Alejandro Martinez-Diaz, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted second-degree murder in June in connection with the shooting of a young woman on May 27, 2021. Martinez-Diaz is one of three men charged with shooting Caylee Nehrbass after chasing her and her boyfriend, Javier I. Romero, 20, of Lawrence, through North Lawrence and opening fire on the car with a handgun. Nehrbass later testified at a preliminary hearing that she still had bullet fragments in her brain.

Her grandfather spoke on her behalf at one of the co-defendants’ sentencing hearings, saying that she was too afraid to attend. He told the court that Nehrbass could not hold a job or spend time in public spaces out of fear of being attacked again.

As part of a plea agreement, the state reduced Martinez-Diaz’s charges from two counts of attempted first-degree murder and dismissed additional drug distribution and firearm charges in connection with a separate incident, as the Journal-World reported.

Judge Amy Hanley sentenced Martinez-Diaz to 128 months, or 10.6 years, in prison on the first count of attempted second-degree murder in accordance with the plea agreement. She sentenced him to 59 months, or nearly five years, on the second count to run concurrently with the first. The agreement originally called for a 144-month, or 12-year, sentence but the state and the defense negotiated an agreement to reflect the 17 months that Martinez-Diaz has spent in custody on the drug charge that was dismissed as part of the plea. In addition to his prison sentence, he will be required to register as a violent offender for 15 years upon his release.

The shooting victim did not attend Thursday’s sentencing hearing, and the state did not read a statement from her. Martinez-Diaz spoke briefly and apologized to the victims and his family.

“I know that an apology isn’t enough, but I still want to apologize to the victims who were physically and emotionally hurt,” Martinez-Diaz said.

He said he was thankful for his parents, who have attended every hearing and court appearance, and he thanked his girlfriend, who is the mother of his child. He said he would spend his prison time educating himself in hopes that when he is released he can be a good father to his child.

Hanley said that she appreciated Martinez-Diaz’s statement and that she believed he was sincere and remorseful.

Martinez-Diaz’s attorney, Michael Clarke, filed a motion for the court to depart from the Kansas sentencing guidelines to give Martinez-Diaz less prison time, which the state supported and Hanley agreed to.

Kansas sentencing guidelines require that Martinez-Diaz, given his criminal history, should face a minimum of 221 months, or 18.4 years, in prison for the first count and another 55 months for the second count of attempted second-degree murder. Court records indicate that he has multiple felony convictions he received as a juvenile that increased his possible sentence. Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum said that Martinez-Diaz’s criminal history was the highest possible on the Kansas sentencing guidelines.

Clarke argued in his motion that Martinez-Diaz should receive less time because of his acceptance of responsibility by entering a guilty plea; his family and community support; and because the victims in the case, Romero and Nehrbass, “were aggressors or participants in the criminal conduct associated with the crime” and lied to law enforcement about why and how the incident occurred.

Clarke wrote that Romero had downloaded a picture of Martinez-Diaz to his phone the morning of the incident and originally told police that Martinez-Diaz chased them across the Kansas River Bridge but later changed his story as to how the incident began. The shooting occurred within a block of Martinez-Diaz’s home, and Romero refused to testify against Martinez-Diaz at a preliminary hearing. Clarke wrote that Romero’s attorney, Dakota Loomis, said that Romero either made a false statement to police previously or was afraid he intended to make a false statement if he testified.

Romero has himself been in custody at the jail facing unrelated charges of first-degree murder along with Andrel Darnell Spates Jr., 21, in connection with the fatal shooting of Christian Willis, 21, of Wichita, on Sept. 8, 2021, in the 1500 block of Kentucky Street. Romero and Spates are scheduled to go to trial for that incident in January of 2024.

Martinez-Diaz faces the most severe sentence in connection with the incident. His brother, Eduardo Martinez-Diaz, 17, of Lawrence, pleaded guilty in December to two felony counts of criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle.

Eduardo was sentenced to 36 months of probation with an underlying sentence of 64 months in prison and is required to register as a violent offender for 15 years. He was ordered to stand trial as an adult in June of 2022 and was facing attempted murder charges at that time, as the Journal-World reported.

The third co-defendant, Ontareo X. Jackson, 20, of Lawrence, pleaded no contest to a second-degree attempted murder charge on Feb. 25, 2022, and was sentenced to 59 months, or nearly five years, in prison. Jackson’s sentence was significantly less since he had no criminal history that affected his sentence.

photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections and KBI Violent Offender Registry

A mugshot of Ontareo X. Jackson, left, from the Kansas Department of Corrections and a mugshot of Eduardo Martinez-Diaz from the KBI Violent Offender Registry

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