Sentenced to death | 'Living the dream' - The Desert Sun
Twenty years ago, 40 police officers surrounded a trailer in Indio with their guns drawn. They had chased a cop killer for 300 miles, and now — after tracking his bloody trail through two states — they finally had him cornered. "I'm not coming out," shouted Ernesto Salgado Martinez. Over the prior 48 hours, Martinez had gunned down a policeman in Arizona and killed a storekeeper in Blythe, police said. Martinez had then fled to Indio, where an officer chased him into a mobile home with a barred door and barricaded windows. Officers prepared to launch tear gas into the house, then storm through the doors and windows. At that last moment, Martinez gave up. He crawled out of a window, shirtless, with his hands in the air. Today, nearly 20 years later, Martinez is one of the most dangerous prisoners in Riverside County. Martinez is also doomed to die. He was sentenced to death in Arizona, where he has awaited execution for the past 17 years. In fact, the only reason Martinez is in Riverside County — draining county funds and endangering prison guards — is because local prosecutors want to sentence him to death a second time, in. Source: www.desertsun.com
