DEPUTY NOT INDICTED IN DRUG RAID DEATH

Grand Jury Rules There's No Cause For Charges In Fatal Shooting

A Travis County grand jury declined to indict a sheriff's deputy Wednesday
for the shooting death of a 19-year-old man during a December drug raid.

Deputy Derek Hill shot and killed Tony Martinez during the Dec. 20 raid of
a mobile home in Del Valle. Martinez was not the target of the drug raid
and was not armed when he was shot.

His mother, Nadine Gonzales of Hayward, Calif., said officials had not
contacted her about the grand jury's decision that there was no cause to
indict Hill.

"How could they have no-billed him?" Gonzales said as she started crying on
the phone. "My son was asleep." She declined further comment.

Travis County Sheriff Margo Frasier was not available for comment Wednesday.

Martinez was asleep on a couch when a Travis County SWAT team rammed open
the front door of the mobile home on Cornflower Circle. The deputies were
headed to the master bedroom to look for drugs when Martinez sat up, and
Hill shot him once in the chest.

The target of the raid was 28-year-old Arturo Alvarez, who had a criminal
history that included attempted murder and aggravated assault. A
confidential informant had tipped off the department that he was dealing
cocaine and methamphetamine from the home, as well as stockpiling automatic
weapons.

Martinez, who was wanted in the burglary of a nearby convenience store, was
related to Alvarez. Authorities arrested Alvarez at the mobile home.

Deputies found 540 grams of cocaine and 222 grams of methamphetamine in the
mobile home as well as a bullet for an automatic weapon.

Martinez was flown to Brackenridge Hospital but was dead by the time the
helicopter landed at the hospital.

Hill had been with Travis County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Ruiz during a drug
raid in February 2001 in which the 36-year-old husband and father was
killed. Edwin Delamora, 21, was charged with capital murder in Ruiz's slaying.

The sheriff's office decided to double the number of officers who
participate in raids after Ruiz was shot.

The Drug Policy Forum of Texas, which was opposed to the police tactics
that led to Martinez's death, held a March fund-raiser for Martinez's
family, which includes his 13-month-old son.

The forum, based in Houston, advocates drug reform issues to local, state
and federal lawmakers.