Sal
My son, Sal Martinez, 29, a student at the
Sal didn’t arrive at the party until about
The party had gotten out of hand long before Sal got there. According to the
party guests, a stripper who had been hired to put on a show had been doing
things the host, Damon Valasquez, didn’t approve of,
like handcuffing the groom and encouraging the guests to touch her. Valasquez fired her, and her boyfriend/bodyguard, Darryl
Fowler, got mad because the stripper had been hired to do three shows and would
now get paid for only one of them. Fowler pulled out a gun and started firing
it wildly into the air, and Sal, who had just gotten there and had nothing to
do with the confrontation, took a bullet in the chest.
Sal was still alive when police officers got there. The cops refused to give
him CPR, because they had forgotten to bring the protective plastic mouthpieces
they like to use when they do mouth-to-mouth recessitation.
Sal died right there in front of them, and they didn’t make any attempt to save
him, because they’d forgotten their pieces of plastic.
The people at the party tried to keep Fowler from running, but he fought
them off and got away. He and the stripper ran out of the house, jumped into
Fowler’s El Camino, and took off. They went into hiding, and allegedly the cops
couldn’t find them. The police told reporters they didn’t even know their
names. How could they not know their names when all they had to do was ask
Damon Valasquez?
Fowler hired an attorney who assured him that if he gave himself up nothing
would happen to him. And he was right. Fowler turned himself in and told the
police he was innocent and didn’t have any idea where the gun was. He didn’t
spend a minute in jail. APD homicide detective Damon Fay said Fowler wouldn’t
be charged because it was self-defense. How could it be self-defense when my
son wasn’t carrying a weapon and neither was anybody else at the party except
Fowler?
Darryl Fowler is said to have a lot of close friends in the police
department. Reportedly Fowler had a meth lab in his
home, (there was stuff in the papers about it when it exploded), and we’ve been
told by people who know him that he also imports drugs from out of the country
and acts as a drug supplier for some high profile people in Albuquerque. One of
those people, who has been identified to us by name,
is a VIP in law enforcement who was in a position to control the handling of
Sal’s case.
A decision was made not to prosecute.
When it became clear that Fowler was going to get off without even a slap on
the wrist, my husband and I sued him and Damon Valasquez
for wrongful death. We didn’t really want to charge Valasquez,
but our lawyer said we had to, because Valesquez
threw the party and he had insurance. Darryl Fowler was the owner of a sporting
goods store, but when he found out there was going to be a lawsuit he got rid
of that store -- either sold it or gave it away – so he didn’t own it anymore.
Our lawyer knew he couldn’t get money out of Fowler, so he wanted to go for Valasquez.
During the hearing, Fowler admitted that he did shoot Sal. He said,
"Well, I knew I must have shot somebody, but I didn’t know I killed him,
and I don’t know where the gun is."
The mediator told all of us, "I’ve known Darryl for years. He used to
be a decent person but he started messing with drugs and messed up." Like
that was an excuse for killing my son!
In November, 1999, we were awarded a settlement, but the district attorney
dismissed the charges against Fowler. He wouldn’t tell us why; in fact, he
refused to talk to us at all. We don’t understand how Fowler can admit on
record that he shot and killed an unarmed person and not get charged with
anything.
I know that if Darryl Fowler had been a regular person and not a drug
supplier for somebody important, he would have gone to prison. If my son, Sal,
had shot and killed Darryl Fowler, you’d better believe he’d be on death row!
Jane Phelps
Update,
July 2004:
Sal's family has long believed that Sal's admitted killer was not charged
with his murder because the killer was a drug supplier for "influential
people in
It now appears their suspicions might be justified. In May 2004, Chief Judge John Brennan of
In June 2004, KRQE TV aired information from a confidential narcotics report
about drug activities involving, not only Judge Brennan, but numerous other
prominent NM judges, attorneys and members of the state legislature dating back
many years. "It draws on a variety
of sources and reads like a Who's Who of the
Like the families who believe their loved ones were killed because they "knew too much," (Kaitlyn Arquette, Ramona Duran, Peter Klunck, Stephen Haar,etc.), Sal's family is eager to learn the identities of the VIP drug traders whose names are contained in that report. But those names cannot be released, because the VIPs have not been arrested.
