Life sentence for Cape Coral man convicted of 2015 murder outside 7-Eleven

A Lee County judge sentenced a Cape Coral man to life in prison Tuesday for the September 2015 murder of a man outside a gas station in Fort Myers.

A jury found Oscar Crespo-Rodriguez, 33, guilty of second degree murder in August. Crespo-Rodriguez appeared for sentencing Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of 30-year-old Eddie Martinez’s late-night murder in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, all caught on security video. 

Assistant State Attorney Andreas Gardiner told the judge Tuesday it was the “calm” and “cold” manner with which Crespo-Rodriguez stuck a gun in Martinez’s rib cage, “pulled the trigger, then walked away and left him to die” that warrants the maximum penalty.  

“While both sides of this case may be hurting,” Gardiner said, “the only just remedy to even begin the process of closure” is a life sentence.

Martinez’s lawyer, Joseph Viacava, argued for the 25-year minimum because there “was no evidence this was intentional or premeditated.” 

But Lee County Circuit Judge Mark Steinbeck disagreed. About two dozen of Martinez’s friends and families — some of whom flew in from Puerto Rico, many wearing t-shirts with Martinez’s picture printed below the word “Why?” — gave a hushed cheer, cried and hugged one another when the sentence came. 

“I just want to let you know it’s never easy in cases such as this,” Steinbeck said, “because young lives were affected on the side of the victim and the victim’s family. And young lives will be affected by the court in its sentencing of you today.”

Crespo-Rodriguez sat in the court room in chains and red prison clothes, with his head hung, while Martinez’s friends gave testimony before the sentencing. 

Behind tears, Angela Lee said she was Martinez’s best friend, part of a tight-knit neighborhood where close relatives and friends call each other brother and sister.  “There’s tremendous void left with this family,” she told Steinbeck.  “Every time we see each other, there are memories of him.”

“If you would have passed by the church on the day of his funeral,” she continued, “you would have thought there was a celebrity being buried.”

Martinez’s death came after a fight earlier in the night at Suggar’s Lounge, a club across the street. Martinez and his girlfriend Diana Fermin were taking cell phone pictures together inside the club, according to court records, when Martinez’s ex-girlfriend Jessica Rivera-Camacho walked in and started arguing with Fermin.

Their exchange erupted into a physical fight. Security broke it up, and Martinez and Fermin left.

The couple stopped for gas at the 7-Eleven across the street, when Rivera-Camacho and several friends, including Crespo-Rodriguez, accosted them in the parking lot. A fistfight broke out and a gun went off. Martinez took three steps forward then fell face first onto the pavement.  

A medical examiner testified that the bullet wound to the chest came at point blank range. Gardiner said in an interview Tuesday that the video and eye witnesses, including the store clerk, place Crespo-Rodriguez as the only one close enough to fire the shot.

“When you watch it frame by frame,” Gardiner said, “there’s just no other way.” The video also shows Crespo-Rodriguez tucking what appears to be a gun back into his waist-band as he stepped away. 

Police responded to the scene, where they found Fernin weeping and holding Martinez, who was unresponsive in a pool of blood on the asphalt. Deputies arrested Crespo-Rodriguez the next day.