Valentin Onofre Martinez, 31, was stabbed multiple times and killed in San Juan Capistrano on Oct. 7, leaving police with an unsolved homicide and a family that still wants answers. First responders took him to the hospital after the attack near Calle Santa Barbara and Los Rios Street, but he was pronounced dead there.
The killing is drawing attention now because investigators have not made any arrests, even though several people were detained at the scene. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office ruled the stabbing a homicide and handed the case to its Homicide and Gang Enforcement Team, signaling that detectives are treating the death as a serious and active investigation.
Mia said Martinez had been walking back to his children from a store when he was attacked. She said she realized something was wrong when she heard sirens and then got a phone call, and by the time she reached the area, everything was already blocked off with caution tape. She said she had to tell their children, ages 3, 5 and 7, that their father was not coming back.
That loss has left a gap that extends beyond the police tape. Mia said Martinez worked at Home Depot and was the father who never missed a day in his children’s lives, taking them to school, picking them up and still showing up for work at night. She said the stabbing was not gang-related and that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, even as the sheriff’s office assigned the case to a team that handles homicides and gang cases.
Mia said she needs the answers before she can move forward, and the family has also turned to a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, setting a goal of $15,000. For now, the central fact is unchanged: a father of three was killed on a street in San Juan Capistrano, and no one has been charged.
