Livermore murder case moves forward as defense calls evidence ‘nothing more than a hunch’ by homicide detective

DUBLIN — The case advanced against two men accused of murder in a 2021 shooting outside of a Livermore hotel, court records show.

Ronnie Martinez, 32, and Phe Phan, 30, are charged with fatally shooting 24-year-old Emilio Molina outside of a Motel 6 on May 7, 2021. Molina died early the next morning from a single gunshot wound in the back, but police say both Martinez and Phe pulled guns and fired a total of eight shots at the victim and two other people as they walked to their second-floor rooms.

At their November preliminary hearing, Phan and Martinez were identified by police from surveillance footage of the shooting, not by any of the roughly half-dozen eyewitnesses who were present for the shooting. One of those eyewitnesses, a woman who knew Molina, did tell police that two men accosted them earlier that night as they went to a nearby 7-Eleven and returned, according to police police testimony.

Police have not publicly disclosed a motive for the shooting, though they have said that Martinez and Phan were associated a Norteno gang called the Livermore Valley Mexicans, and that Molina was associated with a rival Sureno subset known as the Blue Rag Soldiers. Police were familiar with both Martinez and Phan from multiple prior contacts, including an incident roughly two months earlier where Phan was the victim of an assault with a deadly weapon in Livermore, according to court records.

At the hearing’s end, both defense attorneys argued the prosecution’s case was speculative. Ernie Castillo, who represents Phan, called it “nothing more than a hunch” and said the video couldn’t clearly establish his client was even there. Martinez’s attorney, Darryl Stallworth, said the person alleged tp be Martinez was wearing a face covering

Judge David Pereda held both men to answer on the charges, but didn’t make any remarks on the evidence.

A third suspect, Concord resident Gabriel Herrera, 29, pleaded no contest to accessory after the fact and was sentenced to two years in state prison in March 2022. Police say he gave the two suspects a ride away from the area in a red Ford F-150, which was later recovered in Pleasant Hill.