In less than 3 minutes, an argument between new neighbors that started over an unleashed dog had ended in a gunshot and an 18-year-old dying in the yard, a Lincoln police investigator testified Thursday at Armon Rejai's preliminary hearing.
Rejai, who is charged with first-degree murder, told police he opened his front door and shot, fearing for his safety.
"He just told me that he wasn't going to let anyone break into his home and hurt him or hurt his property," said Officer Jason Adams, the lead investigator into Julian Martinez's Jan. 21 killing.
At the end of the hearing, Lancaster County Court Judge Laurie Yardley found probable cause for the case to move forward to district court, where Rejai's arraignment has been set in late April.
But first, Adams described how it all started with Rejai taking his dog on a walk at about 10 a.m. near South 17th Street and Euclid Avenue, just north of Bryan West Campus.
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Soon into the walk, Rejai got into an argument with his next-door neighbors (Martinez, his girlfriend and a roommate) about their dog being off the leash in their backyard.
Adams said Rejai went in the back door of his apartment but could hear them outside yelling at him, calling him names, wanting him to fight.
He said Martinez's roommate told police later that Rejai had jogged toward them and shot them all with pepper spray, then went back inside.
Adams said Rejai locked the deadbolt, looked for his phone and retrieved a Glock 26. He said Martinez was at his door, pounding on it almost immediately, and threw a Christmas ornament against the door, causing the ornament to shatter.
Rejai said he could see light coming from a gap at the door and heard the keypad.
Adams said Rejai opened his door and shot Martinez once before shutting and locking his door again and calling 911.
"So this all happened quite quickly?" Deputy Lancaster County Public Defender Amanda Baskin asked Adams.
"Yes, it did," he answered.
By Rejai's account, Adams said, only 2 to 2½ minutes passed between him bringing his dog inside and the shot.
He said police found Martinez on the ground about 6 feet from the threshold of Rejai's front door along with a 9 mm shell casing. Martinez's roommates did CPR to try to save him, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
And officers arrested Rejai at the scene.
Prosecutors initially charged Rejai with second-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. But they later upgraded the murder charge.
If convicted, he would face an automatic life sentence.