RIALTO – A 25-year-old will face murder charges stemming from a shooting that took place in 2004.
Derione Johnson was a teenager when he allegedly shot Shaylen Martin, 23, in August 2004, just outside a Rialto apartment complex in the middle of the day. But the case went cold until Tuesday, April 7, when investigators arrested Johnson at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. According to reports, Johnson was 15 when he shot Martin.
He has since pleaded not guilty and will appear in West Valley Superior Court on Wednesday, April 22. Cold Case Detective Rory Scalf arrested Johnson one day after the birth of his first child, according to reports. Rialto police unleashed its Cold Case division in 2013.
East Jackson Road today, where in 2004 a deadly shooting occurred.
Back on August 3, 2004, police responded to the block of 200 East Jackson Street, in north Rialto near Eisenhower High School, for reports of a fight. They discovered that a gun had been fired during the incident, and Martin had been struck in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
During the investigation, police did not have enough evidence to make any arrests. Scalf, who joined the Cold Case Division in 2013, identified Johnson as a suspected gang member. Eventually, Johnson was identified as the shooter, said law enforcement officials. The victim Martin had dropped out of school to care for his family, and apparently knew Johnson, “but it doesn’t appear they knew each other well,” said police.
The Cold Case Division, which reopened the Martin case by re-interviewing witnesses and talking to other people, has solved seven crimes since it was formed.
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