It was a crime that rocked San Diego during the long Fourth of July weekend. The body of a 65-year-old unhoused man was found bloody and half naked next to a children’s playground right across the street from Mission Bay's Belmont Park the day after the holiday.
San Diego Police detectives later arrested 19-year-old Daniel Martin of El Cajon and his friend in connection with the death of Michael Shook.
On Monday, a superior court judge ruled there is enough evidence against Martin and he must stand trial for murder. Martin, who was 18 at the time of the stabbing, is being tried as an adult while the other defendant is in juvenile proceedings.
The preliminary hearing began with testimony from David Lewis, who testified he thought he heard someone yelling for help at about 3:30 a.m. Lewis and his girlfriend were staying aboard his boat, moored in the bay. In the morning, he testified, the two went ashore to search for “treasure” left behind from Fourth of July revelers. That was when he said he spotted the body of a man near a bench in the park.
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The man was naked from the waist down, Lewis testified, saying it looked like he’d been stabbed.
Lewis walked to the San Diego police command post near Mission Beach to report the body, but said an officer there did not take him seriously. He also said he saw two young men; one wore a T-shirt covered in blood, he recalled. When he told them about the body Lewis testified one of the young men said, “Oh my God, he’s dead?”
Lewis pointed to Martin and said he was one of the men he saw that morning.
Officer Brianna Brusherd was the San Diego Police officer who Lewis called “dismissive.” Brusherd testified she approached the two teenagers because it looked like they needed help. Both were barefoot and told her they needed a phone so they could get a ride home after they’d been in a fight on the beach and their phones and wallets were stolen.
The teens later found a man who offered to order an Uber for them. The Uber took them to El Cajon but did not take them to their respective homes, Brusherd said. Detectives later interviewed the Uber driver and the man who paid for the ride. That was how they were able to locate the two teen suspects.
Another detective testified he interviewed a homeless man named Robert Gomez who claimed he saw 5 or 6 men and women confront Shook earlier that morning. He said Shook was performing a lewd act on himself, which the group did not appreciate. They told him to stop, but the verbal altercation soon turned into a physical one.
Detective Steven Prats testified that Gomez told him Shook asked the young people for some marijuana and when they said no, he began swinging at them. Gomez told the detective that some of the attackers wore steel-toe boots and were kicking Shook in the ribs. He also told the detective that one of the suspects beat Shook with a barbecue lid.
Days later, Detective Chris Bernard testified, he interviewed both Martin and the juvenile suspect. Both told him it was the juvenile who stabbed Shook with Shook’s own knife as all three men had a physical altercation. He testified that Martin admitted to elbowing Shook in the face several times and kicking him in the ribs.
Bernard testified that the juvenile told him he’d been in about a dozen fights but had never seen anyone in as bad condition as Shook.
"I didn't kill him, but by the time I was finished with him, he was done," Martin said, according to the detective.
Investigators also asked Martin about the victim's pants, which were balled up and found near Shook's body. One of Shook's shoes was entangled inside the pants, which Deputy District Attorney Shane Waller said was consistent with the pants being forcibly removed.
Bernard said Martin admitted the victim's pants were removed after the stabbing. When asked why, the detective said Martin laughed, then said "We thought it would be cool."
Both teens' accounts to detectives differed in some aspects.
The juvenile said Martin and Shook argued first and at some point, Shook pulled out a knife. The boy said he grabbed Shook's knife hand and forced the victim's own blade into his body, while Martin held Shook's arm down, Bernard testified.
Martin’s public defender, Amy Balfe, seized the opportunity to point out her client’s DNA was not found on the knife or any of Shook’s clothing. She also pointed out that the attack was “a random thing” the teens never intended to do.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s report listed Shook’s cause of death as a stab wound.
After hearing the testimony, the judge decided there is enough evidence against Martin to proceed to trial. The trial date is set for June 19.
If convicted Martin faces 25 years to life in prison.
