Valentin Onofre Martinez’s fiancée is fighting to correct the record about the 31-year-old father as she raises their three young children alone.
Mia, who shared her story with ABC 7, found herself standing behind police tape on the night of Oct. 7 after hearing distant sirens and receiving a phone call that drew her to a neighborhood near Calle Santa Barbara and Los Rios Street in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County. First responders had already rushed Martinez to the hospital, where the father of three was pronounced dead from multiple stab wounds suffered around 8:10 p.m.
Police detained several people at the scene that evening, though no arrests have been made in the week since. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has classified the killing as a homicide and assigned its Homicide and Gang Enforcement Team to lead the investigation.
Mia arrived to find the area completely sealed off. “When I got here, everything was already completely blocked off with the caution tape. Hundreds of police,” she told ABC 7.
She then faced the devastating task of telling their children, aged 3, 5, and 7, that their father would not be coming home. “They just keep asking for their dad. When is daddy coming back? And I just have to keep telling them that he’s not coming back,” she said.
The grieving fiancée took aim at speculation about gang involvement. “They’re trying to paint this as something that it’s not, which is gang-related. And if it is then it’s only on one side and it’s not his side,” she said. She believes Martinez was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time while walking back from a store with drinks and snacks for his children, who had been waiting at a nearby park.
Mia described a devoted father whose routine centered on his family. He worked nights at Home Depot yet still managed the morning school run. “A father that was there every day of his kids life. He never missed a day. He took them to school, picked them up, went to work. He worked at Home Depot nights and still got up to take his kids to school,” she said.
The victim’s mother echoed that portrait in a GoFundMe organized to cover funeral expenses, setting a $15,000 goal. “He was a hardworking man, and he took so much care of his family,” she wrote in the fundraiser.
Mia is demanding answers from investigators, driven by the need to eventually explain the loss to her children. “I need the answers because I’m just not going to be able to move past it and find closure or anything until I have all the answers and for them as well because they’re going to need answers too,” she said.
The killing occurred in a residential neighborhood of the historic Orange County city as Martinez returned from errands for his family. The circumstances of what happened between the store and the park remain under investigation by the sheriff’s specialized homicide unit.
The GoFundMe for Martinez’s funeral expenses remains active as his family waits for developments in the case.