Cave Junction, Ore.– Daniel Joseph Martinson will spend more than six years in prison for his role in the stabbing death of a man nearly two years ago. He pleaded guilty this week to criminally negligent homicide.
Thursday morning he sat quietly in the Josephine County courtroom as the mother of the victim, Aaron Lee Clouser, addressed him for the first time since her son’s death, “You murdered my son. I know it and you know it.”
Defense lawyer Chris Mecca acknowledges, “There are no winners in a case like this. A mom has lost her only son and its just simply heartbreaking.”
A plea deal was reached after a key witness to the murder died before giving his testimony, casting doubt over the state’s ability to prove Martinson’s guilt. The deal is 75 months in prison and three years probation.
Prosecutors say Clouser was found dead laying in the middle of West Millie Street in Cave Junction with stab wounds to his back and head in November of 2013 after a fight with Martinson.
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