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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Clearlake Park man is now serving a 90-years-to-life sentence in state prison for shooting and injuring a family friend and killing her fiance.
Judge Andrew Blum handed down the sentence last month to Javier Martinez Cachu, 22, during a hearing in which the family of the man who died, Luis Pimentel Arroyo, gave emotional testimony about the impact of the murder.
Earlier this year, Martinez Cachu reached an agreement with the District Attorney’s Office that led to him pleading guilty on Jan. 26 to the first-degree murder of Pimentel Arroyo and the attempted murder of Pimentel Arroyo’s fiancee, Evalia Prado, on Dec. 30, 2015, as Lake County News has reported.
Blum sentenced Martinez Cachu on those counts as well as special allegations of use of a firearm, which totaled the 90-years-to-life sentence.
District Attorney Don Anderson told Lake County News that someone who is under the age of 25 at the time of the crime – even one as serious as a homicide – may be eligible for parole, which was a reason for the plea agreement.
Tracy Gatlin, Martinez Cachu’s defense attorney, said the plea agreement was the right thing to do.
“At the end of the day, my client killed Mr. Pimentel,” she said, adding that she wasn’t excusing Martinez Cachu’s behavior.
Gatlin said the governor signed the new law into effect that offers the parole opportunity based on the scientific evidence that shows that the brains of people from age 16 to 22 are still developing. “They’re not children but they’re not fully adults.”
She said she was exceedingly grateful to Anderson and to Deputy District Attorney Daniel Flesch for agreeing to the case disposition. “I know it was against the wishes of the family.”
Gatlin credited Martinez Cachu’s first attorney, Barry Melton, for getting the death penalty taken off the table in the case, and for informing her of the new law about parole for young offenders. When Melton retired, she took over.
The District Attorney’s Office said the case motivation involved drugs and insurance money. Prado and Pimentel Arroyo lost their Middletown home in the September 2015 Valley fire.
Flesch told Lake County News that the investigation found that Prado received proceeds from an insurance claim for a home she owned that burned during the Valley fire and entrusted them to Martinez Cachu.
The District Attorney’s Office has reported the amount of money as $40,000, but Prado told Lake County News that it was closer to $100,000.
Martinez Cachu used the money to buy marijuana to sell, but after he was reportedly robbed, Martinez Cachu couldn’t pay Prado back, the District Attorney’s Office said.
A report from Anderson on the case said that Martinez Cachu intended to kill the couple so he wouldn’t have to pay back the money.
Flesch said that Pimentel Arroyo was driving a vehicle with Prado and that they were lured to a remote location on Butts Canyon Road in Middletown on the night of Dec. 30, 2015.
There, Martinez Cachu met them with a shotgun, opening fire on the driver’s side first, killing Pimentel Arroyo, before going to the passenger side and firing at Prado, Flesch said.
Prado had some residual spray from the shotgun, but nothing life-threatening, he said.
Following the shooting, Martinez Cachu fled the scene in another vehicle before his family took him to the Clearlake Police Department about two hours later to turn himself in.
“They walked him into the police station to confess to the crime,” Gatlin said of Martinez Cachu’s family. “They tried to do the right thing.”
Gatlin said that, at the time of Martinez Cachu’s arrest, cocaine was found on him, and he may have been under the influence.
At the jail, he informed staff that he was afraid for his family’s life, and asked that they be protected, Gatlin said.
“At the end of the day, this was a function of marijuana sales at an insane level,” said Gatlin, adding that Martinez Cachu “got caught up in the game.”
Anderson said Martinez Cachu has shown no remorse for the killing. However, Gatlin said he is deeply regretful.
A longtime relationship
Prado told Lake County News that she had been friends for about 20 years with Martinez Cachu’s mother, Maria. They had become so close that they had co-signed for each other in home purchases.
Prado said that was the case with the home she had in Middletown that burned in the Valley fire. The insurance money for that home went to Maria Martinez; Prado said Martinez was supposed to give the money to her son in order to have him deliver it to Prado. But Prado said she never got the funds, which she estimated totaled $100,000.
She said he told her that he had used part of the money to purchase marijuana and was robbed of it. He also purchased an SUV that his family still has with the rest of the funds.
When Martinez Cachu said he couldn’t pay her back, Prado said she wasn’t shocked. While her fiance wanted to fight with Martinez Cachu, she said she had told Martinez Cachu they would work it out.
Prado, who has a landscaping business, said Martinez Cachu came to them with a job prospect in the Middletown area. He said he had an address for a man who wanted them to come and do work for him.
On the night of the shooting, Prado said she and Pimentel Arroyo followed Martinez Cachu to a location on Butts Canyon Road and then parked. “We were waiting because supposedly he couldn’t find the address.”
They were sitting in their vehicle, with her fiance on the phone and Prado writing things down when, Prado explained, “I thought we were hit by a car.”
It wasn’t a vehicle. Rather, it was Martinez Cachu shooting into the driver’s side of the vehicle, killing Pimentel Arroyo. He then walked around to Prado’s side of the vehicle and shot again.
Prado said she was struck by shotgun pellets, resulting in blood all over her face. “He thought I was dead and then he took off.”
After Martinez Cachu left, Prado said she got out of the vehicle, tried to wave down a car and called Maria Martinez about what had occurred.
She said law enforcement responded and would take her to the hospital.
At about the same time, she got a call from Konocti Harbor, where he had been staying, asking if Martinez Cachu could go into her room.
She stayed overnight at the hospital. Eventually she would have 10 of the shotgun pellets removed, but she still has two, including one close to her eye that can’t be removed and one by her brain.
Prado said she can handle the pain. “The fear is the worst of everything.”
She said she’s received blame from her fiance’s family, and retaliation from Martinez Cachu’s, who went to the insurance company to accuse her of fraud, which she’s had to fight.
“I have done nothing wrong,” she said.
She maintains that the situation had nothing to do with drugs. She denied allegations made by Martinez Cachu’s family and attorney that she was a drug dealer and said she hadn’t threatened Martinez Cachu, who she said “could have just left.”
“They’re gonna say what they want to say,” she said, adding, “the reality is, it wasn’t about drugs.”
Likewise, Flesch told Lake County News, “It has been alleged by the defense that Prado is a big time dope dealer and that she may have set this whole thing up. There is zero evidence to suggest that she set any of this up.”
He said he was aware that Prado had previously been contacted by the sheriff’s office and was suspected of growing marijuana. Prado denies she was.
An emotional sentencing
At the April 3 sentencing, Pimentel Arroyo’s family sat on one side of the gallery, Martinez Cachu’s on the other.
Prado was not in attendance. She said it would have upset her too much.
Flesch called it “probably the hardest and most emotional sentencings that I have sat through.”
Family members brought with them a wooden urn containing Pimentel Arroyo’s ashes. Several gave statements to the court about the impact of his murder on their lives. As his sister-in-law, Laura Pimentel, gave her emotional statement, the urn sat before her on the witness stand.
Martinez Cachu’s brothers and mother also made statements to the court.
His older brother, Miguel, said he took his brother to the Clearlake Police Department after the shootings because he knew he had done something wrong. He said his family was sad over the shooting.
“It’s not an easy thing to go through to lose a brother, a son, an uncle,” he said. “I truly believe my brother is remorseful.”
Family also promised to support and encourage Martinez Cachu while he serves his prison term.
His mother, speaking through an interpreter, said to Pimentel Arroyo’s family, “I want to give my condolences to the family. We are very sorry.”
She said Pimentel Arroyo was a good man, as is her son, who she said also is a good father and hard worker.
Maria Martinez said her family didn’t know what happened, or what pushed her son to do it. “I still love him. He knows he can count on my support.”
Another brother, Juan Carlos Martinez, called Prado “the bad person” in the case, claiming she made Martinez Cachu do it. “I know he regrets what he’s done,” he added.
Gatlin told the court her client had taken responsibility.
She said the murder was another crime related to marijuana and the sales of it, and like Martinez Cachu’s family she made allegations against Prado, specifically, that she was a ringleader in a marijuana business and Martinez Cachu was working for her.
“My client is deeply remorseful for his actions,” she said, and she added that she hoped the victim’s family would consider the power of redemption and realize that people can change.
Prado, who has stayed in Lake County, said of the case, “It took away a good young man and put another one in prison.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.