SAN ANTONIO -- Julian Martinez claims he tried helping the 17-year-old girl who San Antonio police say he murdered. He knows that he is accused of killing her, but he maintains that the facts of the case will vindicate him.
"When I go to court and they find me guilty, that's whenever people can start running their mouth," Martinez said. " Until then, there's two sides to every story."
Martinez, 18, is in the Bexar County Detention Center charged with the murder of Amanda Acosta. It's where he agreed to an exclusive jailhouse interview with KENS 5.
The recorded conversation lasted for nearly an hour. He answered questions about his past and the Acosta murder.
According to an arrest warrant, he is accused of fatally wounding the girl as she left a party in the 200 block of Cavalier on March 14. San Antonio police say the admitted gang member fought Raven Moreno, a male friend of Acosta.
The warrant accuses Martinez of knocking out Moreno. As Moreno recovered from the blow, his friends, including Acosta, took him away from the violence to a black Jeep. Investigators said an eyewitness saw Martinez open fire twice. One shot hit the Jeep. The other killed Acosta.
"Knowing that there's other people in the Jeep... and knowing that the bullet could hit anywhere, like, why would I do that?" he asks.
Acosta was taken to the hospital, where she died. Martinez was arrested in the case not long after fingers on the street started to point in his direction. He denies the allegations.
"The only weapon I had was my hands," he said. "That's the only weapon I used was my hands."
Martinez even went to a fundraiser for Acosta's funeral expenses. He bought a plate and a t-shirt. The murder suspect says it was to show the family he had nothing to hide.
"He (Moreno) kept trying to get her drunk and trying to take advantage of her," he claims.
Acosta's aunt, Susie Martinez, says the story is all in the teen suspect's head.
"He says he wants to tell us the truth. He don't know what the truth is," she said.
Martinez said his fight with Moreno was twofold: Save Acosta and because Moreno was reportedly trying to rep his gang.
Video of the fight flooded Facebook the day after Acosta was killed. Martinez is seen fighting. He holds up a flag (bandana) in the video, bragging about knocking Moreno out with one punch. Acosta is reportedly heard screaming at Martinez to stop on the video.
"But why would I be upset? I already done knocked out the guy. What is the point of still going?" Martinez inquires.
Martinez says he didn't fire off a gun at Moreno. In fact, he says he got into a white Cadillac and left for another party.
However, cell phone video shows him hanging out of a gold-colored SUV as described by SAPD in his arrest warrant. Martinez says there are so many stories about the shooting that no one can get the scene straight.
Reporter: "Were you trying to shoot the gang member and shot Amanda?"
Martinez: "That's the thing though, likem I didn't shoot nobody. Not once did I fire any kind of weapon?"
Reporter: "They say you are a murderer."
Martinez: "They?"
Reporter: "They say you are a murderer. Are you a murderer? Can you sleep at night with a clear conscious and know that you did not kill her? Or did you?"
Martinez: " I sleep good. I sleep good every day. Do I look like I lose sleep?"
Martinez said his trouble with the law started several years ago. He said he wanted the fast life of the street. The teen says he turned to marijuana, alcohol and pills, and a bad rep soon followed.
The product of a single-parent household, he's been to juvenile detention more than 10 times over the past three years. He says he hates rules, which is where his home life fell apart.
"I just wanted to get out of my mom's way," he said. "She had her rules, and I didn't want to follow them."
He has a baby on the way, a murder charge and a forthcoming trial. Martinez wishes things would have turned out differently.
"Wish I could go back and live my childhood," he said.
