Third man charged in connection with large fight, shooting, outside Salt Lake bar
by Pat Reavy ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Joshua Martinez, 23, was charged in connection with a fight and shooting outside a Salt Lake bar.
- Martinez faces rioting and police evasion charges from the March 14 incident.
- Two others, Angelo Garcia Jr. and Vincent Thomas, face multiple related charges.
SALT LAKE CITY — A 23-year-old man has been charged in connection with a large fight that culminated in a shooting outside a Salt Lake City bar, marking the third person charged in the March incident.
Joshua "Gizmo" Jesus Daniel Martinez, of Salt Lake City, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with rioting, a third-degree felony; and failing to stop for police, a class A misdemeanor.
On March 14, police responded to reports of a fight and a shooting near 165 E. 200 South.
"Witnesses on scene reported that a large fight of 15-20 people began inside Johnny's on (200 South) and the fight then spilled outside the bar on the sidewalk," according to charging documents. Outside the bar, a man was seen firing multiple rounds in the air, "and then pointed the gun to the east and fired additional rounds."
The victim, a man, "was shot once and had received surgery to have his spleen removed and had internal injuries," according to court documents.
After the victim was shot, witnesses watched "the shooter walk in the middle of the intersection, take off his shirt, posture up and flex" while yelling gang slogans, the charges state.
Prosecutors say Martinez, a documented gang member, has been identified as an active participant in the fight.
When he was found by police that night, Martinez was "shirtless (and) covered in blood holding a white tank top," his charges state. "Martinez was bloody, had several cuts, bruises and abrasions from the altercation and had neck tattoos matching the description provided by a witness as one of the involved parties in the altercation."
Martinez was recently convicted in 3rd District Court of illegally possessing a gun, a third-degree felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on Monday.
In March, Angelo Mark Garcia Jr., 40, was charged in 3rd District Court with shooting a gun causing serious injury and aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, first-degree felonies; being a restricted person in possession of a gun and seven counts of illegal discharge of a firearm, second-degree felonies; rioting, a third-degree felony, and two counts of improper discharge of a gun, a class A misdemeanor. Most of the charges come with gang-related penalty enhancements if convicted.
Vincent James Thomas, 45, of West Jordan, was charged with rioting, a third-degree felony, and assault, a class A misdemeanor, for his alleged role in the fight. Thomas has been in and out of the Utah State Prison for the past 25 years, according to records from the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
In 2015, he was convicted of a reduced charge of manslaughter for his role in a fatal 2001 drive-by shooting and sentenced to one to 15 years in prison. Thomas was granted parole in 2021 but has had several parole violations since then, according to Board of Pardons records. The board issued a warrant for Thomas' arrest following the March 14 shooting for again allegedly violating the conditions of his parole, the board's website states.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Pat Reavy
Pat Reavy interned with KSL in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL or Deseret News since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.