Suspect Blames Language Barrier Between Him and Police

Wilmer A. Gomez says he wanted to explain to Prince George's County police that his friend Francisco Martinez wouldn't return a $1,500 gold chain that Gomez had lent him.

Four officers in two cars arrived at a Lanham home where Gomez, Martinez and a third friend were drinking tequila about 2:30 a.m. July 23, Gomez said in an interview. But the officers didn't speak Spanish, and he doesn't speak English, Gomez said.

The officers spoke to Martinez, who spoke English. About five minutes after they arrived, Gomez said, the officers left.

An hour later, police returned to the home -- this time, to investigate a homicide. Martinez, 46, had been fatally stabbed, allegedly by Gomez, 25, according to police charging documents.

Gomez was interviewed last week in the Prince George's County Detention Center, where he is being held without bond on a charge of first-degree murder.

During the interview, conducted in Spanish, Gomez declined to describe what happened after the officers left, on advice of his attorney.

"If they had done something . . . nothing else would have happened," Gomez said.

Lt. Terence Sheppard, a police spokesman, confirmed that patrol officers were summoned to the home about an hour before the fatal attack was reported.

Because the investigation into the homicide is ongoing, Sheppard said, he could not release any details about the initial encounter between patrol officers and Gomez, Martinez and the third man, identified in police charging documents as Santiago Bautista.

Sheppard said he could not identify who called police, whom the officers spoke to, or what the officers said or did.

Gomez said he is the one who called 911 seeking help when Martinez would not return the borrowed chain. A police spokesman said some Spanish-speaking dispatchers are available in the Prince George's 911 system.

Four officers arrived in two squad cars, "but I don't speak English, and they didn't speak Spanish," Gomez said. After speaking briefly with Martinez, the officers left, Gomez said.

"They didn't do anything," Gomez said.

Eliza Leighton, a staff attorney with CASA of Maryland, a Silver Spring-based nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of immigrants, said she is concerned that some incidents involving Spanish-speaking victims and witnesses are not properly investigated by police because of language obstacles.

"Because of the language barrier, there's a gap between the Spanish-speaking community and the police which is detrimental to public safety," Leighton said.

Without commenting specifically on the incident, Sheppard said officers who encounter Spanish-speaking witnesses or victims can ask for help over police radios.

The department has 30 officers and six civilians who are certified as Spanish-speaking interpreters. But the number of Spanish-speaking officers is higher than that, because some bilingual officers choose not be certified as interpreters, Sheppard said. Officers can also ask for the services of a "language line," on which interpreters are summoned over the phone.

The police charging document that accuses Gomez of the slaying makes no mention of the initial encounter with officers.

According to the charging document, written by Detective Marcos Rodriguez, police went to a home in the 9100 block of Fifth Street in Lanham about 3:24 a.m. and found Martinez lying in the kitchen in a puddle of blood, suffering from a stab wound. Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the charging papers.

The papers state that Martinez and Gomez had been arguing over a necklace. The argument awakened Bautista, who tried to separate the two. At that point, Gomez stabbed Martinez in the chest, the charging papers state.

Gomez allegedly then said to Bautista, "If you run, I will do this to you, too," according to the charging papers. Bautista managed to run away. He declined to be interviewed.

The Martinez case is not the first time county police have encountered difficulties when investigating crimes involving Spanish-speaking victims, witnesses and suspects. A triple homicide in Adelphi over the Fourth of July weekend remains open, as does a triple stabbing in Langley Park last August.

In that case, county prosecutors last month abruptly dropped two first-degree murder charges against a defendant in the middle of a trial after saying they had learned of evidence that cast doubt on the guilt of the Spanish-speaking defendant, accused of slashing two immigrants to death.

Before the charges were dropped, the lead detective in the case testified that he did not know what the witness said during his initial interview with a bilingual detective because he does not speak Spanish.