Night Raid

In this episode of Night Raid, we explore how the eight and a half year legal process has affected both the Martinez and the Diamond families, through interviews with David Martinez and his attorney, Brady Sullivan, and a reenactment of the powerful victim impact statements delivered by Shaun Diamond’s daughter Margo, and others affected by his killing. And finally, a major development in this story is expected to occur sometime in the early Summer of 2023, and we plan to be on hand when it happens.

The jury in The People vs. David Martinez gets the case and takes five days to reach a verdict. We hear the arguments and personal drama that went on behind closed doors through interviews with two of the jurors. After learning the jury’s decision, we explore the aftermath of that trial.

We’ve heard from the prosecution and defense. Now, David Martinez himself takes the stand. We reënact  David’s testimony, starting with his account of the night of the raid. David explains in detail what he claims he heard and saw in the seconds before his door was breached by the SWAT team and why he fired his gun. Then David Martinez faces a razor-sharp cross examination by Deputy DA Michael Blake.

The last episode brought listeners the prosecutors case against David Martinez, accused of killing Pomona police officer Shaun Diamond. This time, defense attorney Brady Sullivan takes the lectern and presents a drastically different narrative: the story of a botched SWAT raid that resulted in a chaotic scene in which David shot in self-defense, thinking the officers were Mongols or other hostile intruders. In this episode we break down the most critical moments of the raid, trying to figure out what David saw and heard in the dark. We illuminate the case for David’s acquittal through testimony reënactment, recordings of detective interviews, a shocking 911 call, and an interview with Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association.

The 2014 SWAT raid on the Martinez home, which left a Pomona police officer dead, was part of a multi-jurisdictional operation targeting members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club. So what was David Martinez’s relationship with the Mongols, and how did that relationship lead to a raid on his family home in San Gabriel? In this episode we zoom out from the night of the raid to see a bigger picture that includes the Mongols’ long history with the ATF and David’s fraught history with them. We then explore the SWAT raid itself with police militarization expert Radley Balko, plus the search warrant affidavit, police operations reports, and shocking interviews with detectives after the raid.

By the end of Night Raid episode one, two conflicting stories emerged: the SWAT team says David Martinez shot Officer Shaun Diamond in the first moments of the raid on the house in San Gabriel, but David’s parents claim the officers shot their own man. Episode two places you on the scene as David’s story evolves from the seconds after the shooting to a pretrial conference three years later. You’ll hear the police dash cam audio, recordings in David’s holding cell, his interview with detectives, audio from undercover officers posing as inmates, jail phone calls, and reenactments of David’s preliminary hearing. Ultimately, the physical evidence leads us to the conclusion that David likely shot Officer Diamond; but did he pull the trigger in self defense, thinking the police were Mongols? With David’s trial on the horizon, his public defender Brady Sullivan is left with a near impossible task: convincing a jury that a man who shot a police officer from approximately five feet away is not guilty of murder.

The first episode of Night Raid is a Rashomon of the 4am SWAT raid on the Martinez residence in San Gabriel. In a matter of seconds, David’s father was shot in the arm and Pomona SWAT officer Shaun Diamond was shot in the neck, and later died … but who fired? Recordings of detective interviews show even police witnesses weren’t sure what happened in the critical moments when the SWAT team breached the front door. The episode includes an emotional interview with Shaun’s mother and letters from David’s sister … showing how the shock of the incident devastated both families and how confusion about the narrative of the raid left them feeling powerless.

Night Raid is a story about the tragic death of a Pomona SWAT officer … and the story of the man accused of killing him. Ask any public defender in the LA criminal courts to name the most complicated and heart-wrenching case in the past decade and almost everyone will tell you it’s The People vs. David Martinez. Ask the prosecutors and they’ll admit the case is tragic. But complicated? No. They say it’s murder plain and simple. There is no dispute that Officer Shaun Diamond was a man of good character whose death is horrific … or that David Martinez was affiliated with a motorcycle club that had conflicts with law enforcement. But Night Raid avoids a rush to judgment and considers all aspects of a very murky case. And in the process explores our own prejudices and preconceptions about cause and effect, guilt and innocence … even punishment and redemption.  There are no videos of the raid and David Martinez isn’t an ACLU poster boy. He’s a family man with vices that may have contributed to the shotgun blast that killed Diamond on the night of October 28, 2014. In the eight episodes of Night Raid, we unravel the compelling story of The People vs. David Martinez - not just the events of David’s two trials but the reasons for the SWAT raid and the planning behind it, the relationship between David and the Mongols Motorcycle Club, and how the intertwined narratives of this story reflect larger issues in our judicial system. The series takes an intimate look at Diamond’s death through unprecedented access to search warrant materials and recordings of detective interviews with David’s family and other Pomona SWAT officers.