photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Alejandro Martinez-Diaz appears at a preliminary hearing on May 9, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Martinez-Diaz is facing charges for attempted murder, drug distribution and possession of a firearm by a felon.

A man charged with attempted murder in a 2021 shooting in North Lawrence indicated on Tuesday that he is prepared to accept a plea deal.

Alejandro Martinez-Diaz, 20, was charged in Douglas County District Court with two counts of attempted first-degree murder 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 allegedly chasing her and her boyfriend, Javier I. Romero, 19, of Lawrence, through North Lawrence and opening fire on the car with a handgun.

On Tuesday, Martinez-Diaz was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in another case in which he was charged with drug distribution and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; he was charged in that case while he was out on bond in the attempted-murder case. He was arrested on the drug charge a week before he was scheduled for trial.

Martinez-Diaz’s attorney, Michael Clarke, said that he had negotiated a plea deal with the state and that the preliminary hearing for the drug and firearm charges would not be necessary because they would be dismissed as part of a plea agreement for the attempted-murder charges.

In April of 2022, Martinez-Diaz was set for trial, but one of the key witnesses in the attempted-murder case, Romero, told the court just before trial that despite having a grant of immunity protecting him from prosecution, he would not testify because his testimony could be different from his previous statements to police and to the court. The grant of immunity would not protect him from a perjury charge.

At that time, Judge Kay Huff, who is now retired, ordered that Romero’s testimony in previous hearings would be suppressed since Romero had indicated that he may have lied to the court or that he intended to lie during trial. Prosecutors then filed an interlocutory appeal of Huff’s decision, asking the appeals court to allow Romero’s previous testimony to be used in trial. An interlocutory appeal is an appeal of an issue during a trial before the trial has reached a final judgment.

Just over a year later on April 21, 2023, the Kansas Court of Appeals returned a decision allowing Romero’s previous testimony to be used at trial. 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.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Javier Isidro Romero is pictured during a hearing on April 18, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Romero is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Christian Willis, 21, of Wichita, on Sept. 8, 2021.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum said Tuesday that the drug distribution charge and firearm charge would be dismissed if Martinez-Diaz entered a guilty or no contest plea to two counts of attempted murder by acting recklessly. She said that the charge was a less severe felony than the initial charge and that Martinez-Diaz’s criminal history was as high as a person could fall on the Kansas sentencing guidelines. According to the guidelines, Martinez-Diaz would be facing between 18 and 20 years for each count of attempted murder.

Tatum said that as part of the agreement the state would allow the defense to argue for a downward departure to 144 months in prison, or 12 years. She said the case would progress as soon as the official mandate from the appeals court about Romero’s testimony was filed and jurisdiction on the case was returned to Douglas County District Court from the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Judge Amy Hanley scheduled a hearing date on June 21, but said that if the mandate arrived sooner, she would move the plea hearing forward if possible.

Martinez-Diaz is currently being held at the Douglas County jail on a $250,000 bond.

Martinez-Diaz’s co-defendants — Ontareo X. Jackson, 20, and Martinez-Diaz’s younger brother, Eduardo Martinez-Diaz, 16, both of Lawrence — previously entered pleas in the case and are already serving their sentences.

Jackson pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree attempted murder on Feb. 25, 2022, and was sentenced to 59 months in prison, or almost five years.

Eduardo pleaded guilty to two felony counts of criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle in December. He was sentenced to 36 months of probation with an underlying sentence of 64 months, or 5.3 years, 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 reported by the Journal-World.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Ontareo X. Jackson

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Eduardo Martinez-Diaz

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