Oklahoma court upholds man’s death penalty in couple’s death

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected a death row inmate’s request to reduce his first-degree murder conviction or grant him a new trial in the killings of a southwestern Oklahoma couple.

The appeals court handed down the decision Tuesday in the case of 35-year-old Mica Martinez. Martinez was convicted in the October 2009 slayings of 64-year-old Carl Miller and 55-year-old Martha Miller at their home in the Comanche County community of Cache.

Among other things, the court rejected defense arguments that Martinez’s conviction should be reduced to second-degree murder or that he receive a new trial because his trial attorney changed defense strategy in the middle of the trial and was ineffective.

Martinez’s appellate attorney, James Lockard of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, declined comment on the ruling.