NEWS STAFF REPORT
BROWNSVILLE, TX—Attorneys for Rogelio Martinez Jr., accused of the 2023 shooting death of San Benito Police Lieutenant Milton G. Resendez, were denied a request to exclude cell phone location evidence in Martinez’s upcoming capital murder trial.
Martinez is the alleged shooter accused of firing a weapon at Resendez during a vehicle pursuit on Sam Houston Blvd. in October 2023, striking Resendez in the abdomen and causing his death.
Martinez’s trial is scheduled to begin on August 10.
Last week, the defense sought to exclude cell phone location evidence. The judge denied the request.
According to court documents, the incident began on October 17, 2023, at South Padre Island, when a traffic stop was conducted on a GMC truck allegedly speeding on the beach.
The truck was occupied by Martinez, Rodrigo Axel Espinoza Valdez, two women, and two children.
Court documents said authorities asked one of the women to call Martinez on his personal cell phone after they and the children were found abandoned by the suspects.
The person who answered the call allegedly said that Martinez was hiding. Later, the woman received a second call from the same phone number, and the caller said the suspect planned to flee to Mexico in an attempt to escape justice.
According to documents, authorities consulted with Cameron County Assistant District Attorney Eduardo Sandoval about obtaining a Geo-Location Tracking Order under exigent circumstances to track the phone believed to belong to Martinez.
Sandoval then, in his opinion, confirmed that the exigent circumstances were met and gave verbal authorization for the order.
The defense argued that this violated Martinez’s Fourth Amendment rights and requested that the cell phone location evidence be excluded, but the judge disagreed.
Martinez plead not guilty to all charges, including capital murder of a peace officer. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Pretrial motion hearings were scheduled for June 24.
As previously reported, Rodrigo Axel Espinosa Valdez, the second individual involved in the shooting death of Lieutenant Resendez, plead guilty to a lesser charge of murder. According to court records, his sentencing is scheduled for August 24, 2026.
Earlier, Martinez and Espinosa Valdez entered not-guilty pleas in a Cameron County courtroom.
Martinez, 18 at the time of the incident, hailed from the Brownsville Southmost area, and Espinosa Valdez, a 23-year-old Mexican national, were charged with Capital Murder of a Peace Officer in connection with Resendez’s death.
The two men were formally indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, at the Cameron County Courthouse.
During the initial stop, court records allege that the driver — identified as Espinosa Valdez in the indictment — fled the scene, and gunfire was allegedly exchanged between the suspects in the truck and responding officers as the truck reached the Brownsville area.
Hours later, the suspects were traveling southbound on Sam Houston Boulevard in San Benito when Resendez joined the pursuit.
According to the indictment, both men were initially charged with Capital Murder of a Peace Officer, two counts of Evading Arrest, and six counts of Attempt to Commit Capital Murder of a Peace Officer for allegedly firing at other officers.
Capital Murder of a Peace Officer or Fireman is punishable by death in Texas.
Martinez faced an additional charge of possessing an unregistered machine gun, and Espinosa Valdez faced two additional charges of evading arrest. Both received a $2 million bond.
Resendez, 54 at the time of his death, was a 26-year veteran of the SBPD. Resendez was a product of San Benito public schools, graduating from San Benito High School in 1987 and attending Rangerville Elementary, Miller Jordan, and Berta Cabaza middle schools.
He later attended Texas Southmost College and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council Police Academy.
Before joining the SBPD, Resendez served with the Brownsville Police Department, the Palm Valley Police Department, and the San Benito CISD Police Department. In total, he served more than 30 years in law enforcement.
According to his obituary, he was an avid comic book and toy collector, a movie buff, and a gardener. He also enjoyed watching his favorite NFL teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans, as well as WWE wrestling. He also enjoyed music; his favorite band was KISS.
Resendez was born September 2, 1969, to Milton and Susana M. Resendez, who preceded him in death. He’s survived by his wife, Melissa, whom he met while attending Texas Southmost College, as well as by his siblings and numerous nieces and nephews. He and Melissa were married for 27 years at the time of his death.
According to SBPD Chief of Police Mario Perea during a press conference on October 18, 2023, Resendez was transported to Valley Baptist Medical Center (VBMC) in Harlingen by fellow officers in a police cruiser separate from his own shortly after being shot in the abdomen that fateful Tuesday night. He later succumbed to a single bullet wound while receiving treatment at VBMC.
Events that evening began unfolding around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, when Cameron County Park Rangers pulled over a red GMC pickup truck for allegedly speeding on the South Padre Island beach.
As a park ranger questioned the driver upon the driver’s exit from the pickup, a scuffle allegedly ensued between the ranger and the suspect. At that point, the passenger allegedly jumped into the driver’s seat and sped off, while the original driver jumped into the truck’s bed, according to Saenz, who also spoke at the press conference.
The pursuit continued through Port Isabel and into Brownsville, where gunfire was allegedly exchanged between the truck’s occupants and law enforcement. According to Saenz, the women and children were allowed to exit the truck shortly after the pursuit began. Saenz said the women were taken into custody for questioning.
By 5 p.m., the truck was found disabled, and authorities began searching for the two suspects near Brownsville on FM 511.
At 10:30 p.m., the suspects were spotted in a black Ford Expedition, prompting another pursuit. At 10:58 p.m., San Benito police were informed that the chase now involved Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers. As they entered the city limits via San Jose Ranch Rd., San Benito officers joined the pursuit, Perea said during the October 18 press conference.
As the chase reached North Sam Houston Blvd., Resendez was fatally wounded.
According to Perea, two bullets, allegedly fired by the suspects in the Ford Expedition while traveling southbound on Sam Houston Blvd. to evade law enforcement, struck Resendez’s patrol unit, with one hitting the front bumper and the other entering the driver’s side door and penetrating the lieutenant’s abdomen in an exposed area beneath his ballistic vest.
Espinosa Valdez and Martinez were apprehended by DPS in Brownsville after the vehicle they were traveling in was rendered inoperable by law enforcement. The alleged perpetrators then fled on foot before being captured.
In May of this year, family, friends, area dignitaries, and officials gathered on a balmy Tuesday morning at the corner of State Hwy. 345 (Sam Houston) and San Jose Ranch Road, between Rio Hondo and San Benito, to unveil a road sign dedicating a section of the roadway to the fallen SBPD Lieutenant.
State Representative Janie Lopez, who was present and spoke at the unveiling ceremony, had earlier filed House Bill 1960, designating a portion of State Highway 345 as the Milton G. Resendez Memorial Highway.
According to SBPD records, Resendez is the first and only SBPD officer to be killed in the line of duty.