A Surenos 13 gang member paroled multiple times after violent offenses shot and killed a handyman over “construction noise” while on a meth binge more than four years ago, only for his own father to tell Utah investigators that his “motherf—er” son “did it, there’s no question about it.” When the admitted murderer showed up to court for sentencing last month and learned his fate, a tattoo on the back of his shaved head prominently displayed the number “187,” adding yet another layer of outrage to the already alarming case.
Jesus Valdez, Jr., is going to spend the next 15 years to life behind bars for shooting 39-year-old Melbin “Tony” Martinez repeatedly on May 28, 2020, as the father to a young daughter worked on a house in West Valley City, next door to where his killer lived.
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Local CBS affiliate KUTV has closely followed the case over the years to investigate why a violent offender who had attacked both of his parents and threatened to kill an ex-girlfriend was allowed out of prison and stayed out of prison despite parole violations. The latest update relates to Valdez’s Sept. 20 appearance in court and his head tattoo — which neither jailers, the judge, nor prosecutors noticed at the time, but which Martinez’s brother-in-law, for one, regarded in the aftermath as “completely unacceptable.”
According to the report , Martinez’s family was sitting right behind Valdez in court and couldn’t help noticing the large “187” tattoo, a tattoo interpreted to refer to the section of California Penal Code that criminalizes murder . The report said that the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the judge’s office, and the district attorney’s office all said they were unaware of the tattoo, with the judge’s communications director adding that this kind of incident hasn’t happened before…