Badly burned, then charged with arson, Arlington man fights to move on after acquittal
Juan Martinez sprinted through his apartment’s living room and threw himself on the grass outside as flames crept up his back and stomach, down his arms, to his hands and along his legs. He dropped to the ground and rolled as his girlfriend screamed and ran from the apartment.
That life-saving sprint would become a key moment in his defense.
Martinez was accused of starting the apartment fire on July 31, 2017. As he lay comatose at Parkland Hospital, two other people who were in the apartment told police that Martinez was their suspect.
He wasn’t able to tell his side of the story. Two months later when he woke up, he was charged with arson and three counts of aggravated assault. Martinez maintained his innocence as his girlfriend, Ariel Corona, and his family fought for his future. His family and friends, he said, never questioned his innocence.
Then, after three days of testimony and 45 minutes of deliberations, a jury in October 2019 announced that Martinez was not guilty. His record was expunged, and evidence from the case was destroyed.
Now, he has to move on from the emotional trauma and physical scars left behind from the fire, which he and his attorney said was started when an acquaintance doused Martinez in gas and lit a match after the two fought. Three years later, Martinez finally returned to work and is proud to provide for his children again.
But, his side of the story will never be investigated because of a failure by an Arlington police detective and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, attorney Christopher Lankford said. The police and DA’s office declined to respond to questions about the case.
Trying to heal
When Martinez woke from his coma, Corona was at his bedside. The couple had reconnected about a month before the fire, after they first met in middle school.
“Honestly it drew us closer together,” Corona said recently while holding their second baby, Catalina. “I would go see him every day. He couldn’t talk for a while so we wrote down the ABCs and he would point to the letters to communicate with us. I couldn’t leave him.”
Corona and Martinez’s family helped him eat and bathe. It took about seven months of physical therapy for him to be able to wash himself.
More than 70% of Martinez’s body was covered in second- and third-degree burns. Splotches of his tanned skin were bright pink and raw. Welts and blisters covered his body, face and head. His hair was singed off and his arms lost their mass.
The burns eventually healed and became scars, but his elbows didn’t heel correctly. Because of a rare complication after burn injuries, Martinez suffers from a condition that keeps his elbows from bending. The couple, still paying medical bills from 2017, can’t afford the surgery he needs.
Martinez has to be careful with how he holds his son, Junior, and daughter. Simple tasks — like putting on a mask or eating — often require the help of someone else.
But Martinez isn’t the type of man who likes to ask for help.
“He can’t put his hand to his mouth,” Corona said. “He made this contraption with a hanger that he uses to put his mask on himself.”
When he was in the hospital, he often declined pain medication and instead relied on a Mexican tea remedy that his mom made.
Mentally, he’s still working through what happened. Corona often coaxes him along when he talks about what happened. He likes to focus on his future, not what happened three years ago.
“He holds a lot inside,” Corona said. “A lot of our anxiety I feel like comes from me.”
The evidence
The person who Martinez and his attorney say started the fire told police that Martinez drenched a pile of clothes in gas and lit a match during an argument while the person was in another room, defense attorney Christopher Lankford said.
The Arlington fire marshal collected evidence to send back to the arson lab. But a couple of days later, an Arlington detective took the unfinished case to the district attorney’s office and got an arrest warrant for Martinez, Lankford said.
Because the records were expunged, the fire marshal couldn’t speak to the Star-Telegram about the investigation, but Lankford said the marshal testified that it was unusual for a detective to seek a warrant before the fire investigation was completed.
The labs were finalized and given to the prosecutors about three months after Martinez was charged.
The trial, which was in October 2019, highlighted the inconsistencies between the lab reports and what Martinez’s acquaintance said happened. The acquaintance’s pants were sent to the lab and analysis found gas on them, which would have been impossible if the person weren’t in the room when the fire began, Lankford said.
Then, the story changed when the person testified, Lankford said.
“There was a whole new story about how [the person] was lying on the couch and Juan poured gas on [the person] and then went to the room,” he said. “[The person] had never said that before.”
The kicker, Lankford said, was that when the fire expert testified, he said that if the acquaintance was lying on the couch with gas on their pants, it would have likely ignited as Martinez ran to the front door with his clothes in flames.
“Those fumes would have ignited and there was no fire damage in the living room,” Lankford said.
The evidence made it clear that the state’s key witness was lying, Lankford said.
Throughout the trial, Lankford said he asked the two prosecuting attorneys if they actually believed their witness but he didn’t get an answer.
“I believed Juan was innocent from Day One,” Lankford said. “Juries are unpredictable and I thought it was horribly unjust that he was tried for that, even when it became clear that he was innocent before we went to trial.”
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Arlington Police Department said the department can’t comment on an expunged case.
The person who set the fire likely won’t be investigated. Because Lankford moved to have Martinez’s record expunged, the evidence was destroyed, he said.
“It’s horrible what happened to him and [that person] was never prosecuted for that,” Lankford said.
Moving forward
Martinez never wanted to let his scars and limitations affect his future. His zeal was inherited from his father.
“My dad is a hard worker and he always taught me not to quit,” he said. “He always pushed me to go forward.”
As soon as he was well enough, Martinez went back to his job as a landscaper — despite his elbows and sensitive skin.
“I can’t let my family down,” he said. “I get out and I have to get to work.”
Before COVID-19, Martinez had an opportunity to become a mentor with the Parkland burn center. He was supposed to go through training to help support future survivors. But because of the pandemic, those plans were placed on hold.
“It really helped me to have that therapy and talk with someone, so I wanted to do that for someone else,” he said.
Corona said the man she knew before the fire came out stronger, but still shy. Her own fears and anxieties often overshadow what he might be feeling inside — he tends to bottle up his emotions.
“We want to leave Arlington,” she said. “I’m afraid to go to the store and see [the acquaintance] or anyone who knows [the acquaintance] and knows us.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 8:26 AM.
