Christine Grooms recalled her sometimes volatile relationship with her son Matthew Bond, just minutes before the man who killed him in a Longmont cul-de-sac in 2020 was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
“We fought like cats and dogs,” Grooms said Tuesday afternoon in Boulder District Court. “Mathew was not my favorite but I loved him differently.”
Grooms also noted her son’s struggles with suicide and substance abuse while she spoke before the sentencing of 35-year-old Richard Lawrence Martinez.
“I fought for 34 years to keep him alive, I did the best I could,” Grooms said. Her son, she said, did not deserve to die at the hands of Martinez, who didn’t even mean to kill Bond.
Martinez was aiming at another man when he fatally shot Bond on the 1200 block of Hunter Court about 4:30 a.m. on June 3, 2020. Bond was a passenger in a car driven by Seth Eberly, who threatened Martinez’s girlfriend hours before the fatal shooting with a shotgun.
“He (Bond) was taken from me by sheer stupidity,” Grooms said. “His life was cut short at 34. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Bond’s step mother — Katherine Bond —addressed Martinez directly, saying his family can visit him in prison while Mathew Bond is gone forever.
“He was brutally taken from us,” Katherine Bond said. “We will never see him again.”
After hearing from Bond’s family, Boulder District Judge Norma Sierra delivered her life sentence for Martinez, who did not speak during Tuesday’s sentencing.
Jurors earlier in the day convicted Martinez on three separate counts after two days of deliberations. The trial lasted all of last week with the jury getting the case last Friday.
Jurors convicted Martinez of first-degree murder with extreme indifference —which carried a mandatory life sentence —and attempted first degree murder with extreme indifference. Martinez was also convicted of a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
Besides the life sentence, Sierra sentenced Martinez to 40 years in prison, with two sentences running consecutively.
Jurors could not reach a verdict on a second charge of attempted second degree murder.
Members of the Martinez family walked out of the courtroom while the Bond family spoke. The Martinez family could not be reached for comment after the sentencing.
“I am very happy with the verdict,” Grooms said after the sentencing.
Prosecutors told jurors in closing arguments that after Eberly threatened Martinez’s wife, Martinez seethed for several hours before he got a gun from a friend and drove to the 1200 block of Hunter Court to confront Eberly.
Martinez pumped as many 13 rounds into the car driven by Eberly but hit Bond with a fatal shot, prosecutors said.
Martinez later fled the state and was apprehended in New Mexico.
Defense attorneys said Martinez was only defending himself from Eberly who tried to run him over with his car. His defense lawyers declined to comment.
Sierra, before she sentenced Martinez, noted that tensions were high among both families who had to endure two years of delay before the trial. She also noted that the deadly shooting was the result of a variety of destructive factors exhibited before and after the murder.
“What huge risks are presented to others when in the presence of weapons in combination of … drugs, violence, revenge and driving under the influence,” Sierra said, adding the harsh sentence was appropriate. “This involved 13 separate acts, as Mr. Martinez discharged his firearm 13 times. He applied pressure 13 times.”
Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty praised his office's prosecutors and Longmont Police for their work in the case. "Our team was honored to fight for the two victims, the family of the young man who was killed, and the Longmont community," Dougherty said in an email. "With today's guilty verdicts and the sentences imposed by the Court, justice has been done."
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