Photo: Joseph Julian Martinez
Santa Barbara County – When a Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department deputy on routine patrol observed a car parked on a residential street, something about it caught his attention. According to SBSD Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, the deputy was alerted because the house was one “that he knew to be vacant.”
Slowing his patrol unit as he approached the parked car, the deputy then spotted two suspects as they fled on foot from the house and sprinted into a neighboring agricultural field.
Within minutes, CHP officers joined the deputy, along with a County Air Support helicopter and a K-9 unit. A perimeter was quickly established that eventually lead to the capture of 41-year-old Santa Maria resident Joseph Julian Martinez.
Apparently, Martinez was the slower of the two suspects, as his partner in crime eluded the search and remains at large. Zick described the suspect as “a Hispanic man about 5 feet 7 inches tall with short hair, wearing a gold-colored Chicago Bulls jacket and blue jeans.”
For his part, Martinez was transported to Santa Barbara County’s Lompoc Jail, where he was booked on charges of burglary, resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of burglary tools, and prowling, with his bail set at $20,000.
Photo: Courtesy Lompoc Jail Booking
