Regional jail next stop for Oswaldo Martinez

Amanda Kerr

JAMES CITY -- The latest step toward learning whether capital murder suspect Oswaldo Martinez will ever be competent to stand trial involves bringing the El Salvadoran man back to greater Williamsburg.

That comes Monday when Martinez, charged with the 2005 rape and murder of 16-year-old Brittany Binger, will be in court for a request from Western State Hospital to move him to the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.

Martinez, a deaf-mute illegal immigrant, has been learning American sign language at Western State since late 2005.

Experts have said that at the time Martinez was arrested in February 2005, he could not read, write or use sign language.

During a competency hearing in May, it was revealed that after a year and a half of instruction, Martinez could effectively communicate with doctors and staff at Western State.

Williamsburg-James City Circuit Judge Samuel Powell III ruled that during the next six months, Martinez's attorneys, Tim Clancy and Beau Webb, begin meeting with him in an effort to determine his ability to aid in his own defense. The move to the regional jail will make those meetings possible.

Martinez, 36, is charged with capital murder, rape, robbery and forcible sodomy in connection with Binger's murder in January 2005.

Binger's body was found at the entrance to the Whispering Pines Mobile Home Court, off Pocahontas Trail. The official cause of death was suffocation and asphyxiation.

DNA found on a juice bottle at the crime scene, as well as skin recovered from under her fingernails, was matched to Martinez. Police got a sample of his DNA after he discarded a beer bottle at a nearby restaurant.

According to assistant commonwealth attorney Nate Green, Western State filed the request to move Martinez to the jail.

"They felt they had done all they could with him," Green said.

Green said that Clancy and Webb have not opposed the motion to move Martinez and that the move would take effect immediately.

Martinez is still considered incompetent to stand trial. If he can effectively communicate with his attorneys and aid in his own defense, he could be ruled competent to stand trial.

A competency hearing to review Martinez's progress is scheduled for Nov. 14.

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