Native American Oñate Statue Protest Shooting Victim Jacob Johns Is at Home in Spokane Still Suffering from Wounds.

 By Jake Arnold

​Defendant Shooter Ryan Martinez Remains in Jail on No-Bond Hold
 
Onate Statute Protest Shooting Victim Jacob Johns Coverage by Spokane Newspaper
 
The Spokane, Washington, Spokesman-Review newspaper in its Monday 1/8/24 edition has a comprehensive update on the medical condition of Jacob Johns, the Native American environmental/political activist and artist who was critically wounded in a shooting incident during a protest over the planned, but later aborted, installation of the Juan de Oñate statue at the Rio Arriba County complex in Española in late September, 2023.
 
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/jan/08/two-months-after-he-was-shot-activist-jacob-johns-/
 
(The link above is one of several in this report taking readers to news stories published by the Spokane Spokesman-Review in 2015, 2023 and 2024.  That newspaper has a semi-paywall type requirement that only allows visitors to read no more than three of its recent/past stories on any given day without a registration).
 
The Spokesman-Review story of 1/8/24 details Johns’ medical condition and the specific damages done to his body by the gun shot fired at him by Oñate statue installation proponent Ryan Martinez of Sandia Park, New Mexico.
 
As a result of that gunshot wounding, doctors had to remove Johns’s spleen.  Other internal organs were severely damaged. 
 
Between participations in climate/environmental and other Native American-oriented events/protests, Johns has been living in Spokane (where is mother, Laverne McGrath had relocated) since his release from an Arizona prison after serving a long sentence after his conviction on charges unrelated to environmental, political, or Native American issues in 2015.
 
A Spokane Spokesman-Review story regarding that conviction, his spiritual journey while incarcerated, his own relocation to Spokane to be near his mother, and her support of him while he was in prison is available at the following link:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/dec/09/prison-time-helped-artist-find-clarity/
 
An excerpt from that S2015 Spokane Spokesman-Review story reads:

At 17, Jacob Johns held the lifeless body of his younger brother in his arms, trying to revive him.
 
“His brother’s suicide left Johns feeling helpless and he stepped onto a reckless path.
 
While driving drunk on his way home to the reservation, Johns, who grew up in Mesa, Arizona, ignored the police as they attempted to stop him. The high-speed chase ended when he hit a police car.
 
Charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, Johns was sentenced to a maximum security prison for eight years. “I was in ‘the hole’ a lot,” he said, “Where I had no other company but my own.”
 
For much of his time in prison, Johns conversed with himself through prayer, meditation, writing, drawing and painting and reading.
 
“In retrospect, my time in prison wasn’t so bad,” he said. “It gave me a lot of time to find clarity.” In his cell, he wrote a book called “The Good Path,” parts of which he sent to his mother who transcribed it to a website (letterstomamafromprison.blogspot.com).”
 
That transcribed blogspot posting is available at the following link:
 
https://letterstomamafromprison.blogspot.com/
 
Please note, however, that this item, posted by Johns’ mother in 2009, Laverne McGrath according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review account of 2015, identifies her imprisoned son as “Charlie” and does not identify him as” Jacob Johns.”
 
Presuming that this posting was in fact actually submitted by Laverne McGrath and does recount her interactions with son Jacob Johns, this extensive document is rather illuminating.
This document describes the despair of “Charlie” (Johns?) over his brother’s death from alcoholism.
 
Shortly after the September, 2023, Espanola Onate stature shooting incident that same Spokane newspaper published an account of the Onate statue protest and the wounding of Johns.
 
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/sep/29/he-is-a-spokandian-he-is-your-family-spokane-indig/
 
The account at the link above additionally chronicles the public displays of numerous pieces of Johns’ artwork in Washington state.
 
The Other Side—Support on Behalf of Incarcerated Defendant Ryan Martinez
 
Martinez, his legal defense team, and a family member do not dispute that Martinez fired the shot wounding Johns, but say in a variety of public statements, interviews with law enforcement officers, Internet postings and court filings that Martinez did so in self-defense.
 
In October, 2023, Ryan Martinez’ mother, Adelita Martinez—also of Sandia Park briefly sponsored a “gofundme” campaign to raise money for her son’s legal defense, but shortly ended that effort, albeit after receiving a minimal amount in contributions/pledges.
 
Her withdrawn “gofundme” plea read: 
Hi, I am Ryan‘s mom, Adelita Martinez. Ryan was attacked, and now he is being attacked even harder by the media. Ryan has always been conservative young man who is outspoken about what he believes. He has worn a “Make America Great Again” hat for longer than I can remember. He was at an event at which there were no law-enforcement present, which clearly they should have been. Even one of the county commissioners has commented numerous times that law enforcement should have been there. After being attacked by multiple men and having his head hit on a wall, he defended himself. This is all shown on video, but all the media is showing as him pointing his gun, like if he was shooting into a crowd of people. As we all know, the media is taking this and running with it for the liberal agenda. We desperately need your support. We will do whatever we have to to help our son. Please keep him and us in your prayers. If you’re unable to donate, please share this as we need it to go far and wide. God bless you.
 
The details of Adelita Martinez “gofundme” effort, with a photo of the shooter wearing his “MAGA” (Make American Great Again/Donald Trump Political Campaign hat) can be reviewed at this link:  https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-ryan-he-needs-your-support
 
(Conversely A “gofundme” campaign sponsored on behalf of Jacob Johns by one of his supporters in Austin, Texas--data current as of early October, 2023—less than three weeks after the Onate stature shooting incident--raised $266,218. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jacob-johns-recover-from-terrorist-shooting)
 
 New Mexico First Judicial District Judge (who sits in Tierra Amarilla) determined that Martinez was a danger to society and after a series of hearings regarding a possible release on bond while awaiting trial, scheduled for May, 2024, and review of his ruling by the New Mexico Court of Appeals, Lidyard determined that the defendant should remain incarcerated at the county detention center until that time. 
 
Lidyard’s ruling denied a defense team claim that Martinez was justified in shooting Johns in an act of self-defense.
 
The next court event scheduled in this case is what would normally be a “routine” Docket Day hearing on March 18, 2024, but that hearing, usually just a procedural housekeeping event, may turn into battle between opposing counsel.
 
In a recent court filing Martinez’ attorneys reference Johns’ Arizona conviction/prison term as well as other instances of Johns’ arrests—all of them involving misdemeanor cases stemming from his environmental / Native American activism.
 
The Ryan Martinez legal defense team  -  Albuquerque attorneys Nicole W. Moss and Marhsall J. Ray - and First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis and her assistants have engaged in a contentious tit-for-tat exchange of court filings related to Johns’ run-ins with the law and the political dimensions of this case.
 
Moss and Marshall had filed a “Brady” discovery motion demanding that the prosecutors disclose any exculpatory (tending to exonerate the defendant) data regarding Johns‘ legal troubles over the past decades or other documents helpful to the defendant.
 
A Brady motion is a common defense tactic when the defendant’s attorneys are suspicious (or are “posturing for the court record/public consumption) that the prosecution has not been completely forthcoming - as required by law/court rules with disclosing evidence or other data known to the prosecution that could be of benefit to the defendant. 
 
In support of their Brady motion non-compliance allegations, the defense attorneys cite and recount the very Jacob Johns court and other materials cases that they allege the prosecutors have failed to disclose. 

Jacob Johns Native American Identity
Johns is of both Hopi and Akimel O’odham tribal descent.

The Hopi homeland is in northern Arizona, surrounded by the much larger Navajo Nation reservation.

The Akimel O’odham people are one of several interrelated O’odham tribes whose homelands are situated in the Salt River and Gila River watersheds in southern Arizona in and south of ‘Phoenix and southwestern New Mexico. The O’odham people are closely related culturally to the Pima Indian people inhabiting the same overall territory.

The water from those two rivers flow into the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona.

The “O’odham” homeland also includes portions of Mexico adjacent to the USA and “O’odham” people have the legal right cross the border between those bi-national homelands without regulation/interference on the part of U.S. Homeland Security (Border Protection/Immigration/Customs) authorities.

At one time the common term for the O’odham people used by non-Native Americans (including the Bureau of Indian Affairs) was “Papago,” a label many Indian people found offensive.