Nearly four years after Jonathan Garza was gunned down outside a Downtown Albuquerque bar, jurors are once again being asked to decide who pulled the trigger. Testimony opened this week in the retrial of Isaac Martinez, the man prosecutors say fired the shots that killed the 30-year-old fitness trainer outside Canvas Artistry in February 2022.
Testimony began Monday in 2nd Judicial District Court, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Martinez, now 24, faces charges including first-degree murder and conspiracy in Garza's killing, and the case is scheduled to continue through Friday before Judge Brett Loveless. Martinez's earlier trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial in July 2025, after that panel split 10-2 in favor of convicting him of first-degree murder following a weeklong trial.
Dueling Accounts of the Shooting
Prosecutors say Garza was defending his brother, who had tried to break up a fight, when the violence outside the bar turned deadly. Several fights broke out around 1:30 a.m. on February 19, 2022, as Canvas Artistry was closing and customers spilled out to the third level of a nearby parking structure, per the same account. Prosecutors argued that Martinez stepped out of a maroon Jeep SUV and fired multiple gunshots, four of which struck Garza in the back and killed him.
Martinez's attorney, Elizabeth Bunker, offered jurors a different version of events, telling them that one of Martinez's companions, not Martinez, fired the fatal shots. Bunker identified that companion as Alejandro Barton, who owned the Jeep involved in the shooting and was driving it at the time, according to the Journal's reporting on the retrial.
Barton's Earlier Plea and Sentence
Barton, now 26, pleaded guilty in 2024 to tampering with evidence and conspiracy for his role in Garza's death, after prosecutors dismissed the murder charge against him. Reports differ on the length of his sentence: the Journal reported Barton received six years in prison, while KRQE reported Judge Loveless sentenced him to six and a half years. KRQE also reported that Armando Martinez admitted to helping cover up Garza's murder and was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation.
With testimony underway again this week, jurors face the same central question that left the first panel deadlocked: whether Martinez or Barton was the one who fired the shots that killed Garza outside the bar. The retrial's outcome remains pending as proceedings continue in Albuquerque's 2nd Judicial District Court.
