Friends and family of Daniel Martinez, a marine killed outside a Boston bar while he was visiting the city on St. Patrick’s Day, delivered emotional victim impact statements in Suffolk Superior Court Thursday morning as Martinez’s killer, Alvaro Larrama, prepared to enter a guilty plea.
In all, nine victim impact statements were submitted to the court — by Martinez’s parents, siblings, and friends. Each of the statements were released by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office alongside a news release announcing Larrama pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter.
Laramma worked as a bouncer at the Sons of Boston bar, which has since been renamed to Loyal Nine, according to The Boston Herald. The stabbing occurred just before 7 p.m. Saturday on March 19, 2022.
Investigators said Larrama denied Martinez and a friend entry into the bar, but then followed them down the block. Video surveillance from the area showed Martinez “raising his left hand as if to defend himself” and then hitting Larrama in the head with an aluminum beer bottle, according to prosecutors. The footage then shows Larrama striking Martinez in the chest.
Police found Martinez with a single stab wound to the chest. He was brought to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced dead at roughly 7:30 p.m.
Among those who submitted statements to the court was Jakob Bernier, a fellow marine who was with Martinez the night he was killed.
“That night I saw and witnessed things no single person should ever have to say they have,” Bernier wrote, recalling Martinez as his best friend and the only friend he felt he could open up to in the Marines. “After witnessing and experiencing the trauma from that night , I no longer enjoy going out and doing things without being nervous something bad is going to happen to someone I love or to me.”
Matthew Martinez, Daniel’s twin brother, said he had developed severe anxiety after his brother’s death, saying, “my primary objective in life has been to just make it home safe one more day.”
“Without his presence, every great experience will have a happiness cap,” he wrote. “His murder has affected me so deeply my mind has led me to forget memories of him because it pains me to think about his presence.”
Luke Martinez, one of Daniel Martinez’s brothers, addressed Larrama directly in his statement, telling the man “there’s nothing you could ever do or say that would make me able to empathize with you and the grave mistake you’ve made.”
“Your actions have played a part in the death of a thousand dreams and hopes of not just my brother, but all of us who loved him,” Luke Martinez wrote.
Daniel Martinez’s sister, Micaela Martinez Newton, said her brother had already begun planning a life for himself beyond the marines, including purchasing a house and going to college — opportunities wiped away by his murder. Newton said it was “heartbreaking” that her brother’s future was taken away from him in a “violent and senseless way.”
“Knowing that I will see him again in Heaven is the only thing that gives me a sense of peace,” she wrote.
Newton, too, addressed her brother’s killer directly, telling Larrama the sentence he received — 17-20 years in prison — was the bare minimum to repay the harm her family has suffered.
David Martinez said he felt so much pride talking about his brother in school with his friends, writing that he saw Daniel Martinez as a hero.
But, unlike his siblings, David Martinez said he forgave Larrama.
“Although you have killed part of my family, friends, and me along with my brother Dan, I have no ill will toward you and yours,” he wrote. “You have put yourself and your family in a terrible position, but you still have a chance at redemption.”
Maxwell Stevens, who described Daniel Martinez as his “most beloved friend,” said Daniel’s murder left him so emotionally wrecked that he delayed his graduation from nursing school by a year.
“I missed Daniel. I needed Daniel,” he said. “My heart had been truly broken.”
Stevens pleaded for Larrama to receive a life sentence rather than 20 years, writing “he must be removed from society for the rest of his wicked and futile life.”
Jacob Chuma, who served with Daniel Martinez in the Marine Corps, said his mental health has been in a downward spiral since his friend’s killing. Chuma recalled needing to use the emergency Veterans Affairs hotline just to calm himself down.
“I think I speak for a lot of my brothers in the Marine Corps, especially those of us who were there that night, that we felt safe going out and doing anything, but now whenever we’re together you can just feel that we’re all prepared for something to go wrong,” Chuma wrote. “We watch each other’s backs to the point where it’s almost ridiculous, but in reality it’s because we’re all scared to lose another brother or anyone close to us for that matter.”
“Life isn’t supposed to be like that,” he continued.
Martinez’s parents, Appolonia and Manuel, both also submitted impact statements to the court.
Manuel Martinez said there was not a day that went by where he didn’t think of his son, calling him a hero for his military service.
And both echoed calls made by other relatives to see Larrama punished for his crime.
“That day you ruined the lives of many people. My family can no longer enjoy Daniel’s birthdays with him. We will never see Dan get married and have children,” Manuel Martinez wrote. “You, Alvaro Omar Larrama, ruined your own life and that of your family who depended on you.”
Appolonia Martinez said her son represented everything Larrama could never be.
“He was only 23 years old and you had no right to take his life,” she wrote. “He had great plans for his future and knew exactly how to achieve them. As opposed to you, so pathetic and disgraceful, living your day-to-day life without a plan or purpose. You are a nothing and nobody on your way to nowhere. You squandered your life and have nothing to show for it. You are a complete failure, who will be forgotten.”
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