Witness said he heard two gunshots at scene of fatal shooting
Jun. 2—WILKES-BARRE — Homicide suspect Natanihel San Martin took a gulp of Hennessey straight from the bottle he slammed down onto a table, went into a bedroom where a 3-year-old child was sleeping and fired a shot from a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, a witness testified Friday.
Concerned, the child's grandmother, Carla Pina, went to the bedroom and confronted San Martin, 40, who then allegedly shot her in the face killing her.
With only two adults and the child in the bedroom, District Judge Thomas Malloy in Wilkes-Barre determined Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Carly Ann Levandoski established a case against San Martin sending an open count of criminal homicide, one count of child endangerment and two counts of reckless endangerment to county court following a near three hour preliminary hearing held at the courthouse.
Wilkes-Barre police detectives Michael Twerdi and James Conmy charged San Martin with fatally shooting his girlfriend inside 42 Darling St. on Feb. 12.
Levandoski played the recording of Conmy's interview with San Martin held six hours after the shooting. At the start, San Martin asked about Pina's condition and Conmy sadly told him, "She's deceased."
San Martin broke down crying only to say the shooting was a "misunderstanding" and not intentional.
Twerdi said a 9mm spent round was recovered during the autopsy of Pina who died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Pina's uncle, Jose Reyes Pina, who lived in a second floor apartment at the same address, testified they were sitting at a kitchen table where San Martin was drinking Hennessey.
Reyes Pina said San Martin became agitated and took a gulp from the bottle he slammed down onto the table and stormed off into the bedroom where he heard a gunshot.
Pina immediately went to the bedroom as Reyes Pina said he heard her say, "No, no, the baby is in here," before hearing a second shot.
San Martin emerged from the bedroom with a handgun in his hand, Reyes Pina testified.
Twerdi said a 9mm semi-automatic handgun with a round in its chamber was found in a laundry basket covered with clothes and the magazine found with eight rounds on a small table.
San Martin's attorneys, Joseph Francis Saporito III and William J. Watt III, believed the evidence did not meet the threshold supporting the charges, arguing no one actually saw San Martin shoot Pina as walls blocked the view of Reyes Pina.
Levandowski said there were only two adults and the 3-year-old child in the bedroom at the time of the fatal shooting as Reyes Pina saw San Martin with a handgun in his hand just seconds after the second shot.
Detectives allege San Martin was angry because Pina went to a casino without him.
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