BOISE, Idaho — The first person has been sentenced in connection with an April triple shooting in Boise that left one woman dead.
Taja McMurtrey-Winn, 23, said in court Thursday she doesn’t care much for the phrase, “I’m sorry,” because it is so often empty. She said she felt the best apology she could give would be to do her best to walk away from the world of drugs and crime she’d been living in the for the past seven years, according to the Idaho Press.
Her connections and relationships in that world led to her involvement in an April 14 shooting in the 1900 block of South Owyhee Street in Boise. That shooting left Briana Martinez, 19, dead, and her sister, Natalie Martinez, 21, hospitalized. Sonny Heidenreich, now 20, was also shot and hospitalized that night, and he was later released.
Police and prosecutors arrested Anthony Alcala, 20, on suspicion of second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in connection with the incident. They believe McMurtrey-Winn, along with Jessica Perez, 18, went with Alcala that night to the Martinez home because Perez and Natalie Martinez wanted to fight.
McMurtrey-Winn, however, said she didn’t know Alcala had a gun at the time. During the fight, which Briana Martinez joined, according to prior court testimony, Alcala fired, shooting the Martinez sisters and Heidenreich.
McMurtrey-Winn fled with Alcala and Perez after that, and the three evaded capture until the next day.
Jeff White, the case’s prosecutor, said of the three, McMurtrey-Winn was probably the least to blame. She pleaded guilty to being an accessory to a crime, and prosecutors agreed to ask the judge to sentence her to a rider term in prison. In a rare move, White argued for a more lenient sentence, and asked 4th District Court Judge Samuel Hoagland to sentence her to a fixed year in prison, with another four possible, but to suspend all of it in favor of probation.
He pointed out she was far more honest with police than the other two people were, and reminded Hoagland she had testified in court without any promises being made to her — and indeed, may have said damaging things about herself, because she testified to using drugs. Her six-and-a-half months of sobriety in jail appeared to have awakened her to the need to change her life, White said.
“Of the three people we’ve charged, this is the one we have hope for,” he said.
Toni Lantz, the mother of Briana and Natalie Martinez, said in court she hopes McMurtrey-Winn learns from her sentence, although she’s not ready to forgive.
“Since that night I don’t sleep, I don’t eat,” she said. “To have your daughter die in your arms in an alley — it’s one of the worst ways a child could go. And then to have your other daughter almost die right there too — I cry every day. Every night, I cry in my sleep.”
McMurtrey-Winn was the one who gave Alcala directions to the home, Lantz reminded the judge. McMurtrey-Winn had been there before, even stayed there before, Lantz said.
“I just hope the defendant learns from this,” Lantz said. “I hope she changes her life. And I know they say forgiveness is how you get through the grieving, but today I’m not ready to forgive. Maybe someday, but not today.”
Hoagland agreed to sentence McMurtrey-Winn to probation instead of a rider term in prison, which was not something he said he walked into the courtroom intending to do that afternoon. He placed terms on her probation, however, requiring her to take drug tests every week for a year, and requiring her to have no contact with Heidenreich for the next five years. He also required her to achieve her GED within a year.
“Briana should not have had to have lost her life for me to wake up and want to do right,” McMurtrey-Winn said. “That I will say I’m truly sorry for.”
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