And then some motorcycle crash. He crashed because he hit my son. 13. I want that dead. I want him dead. I don't Sunday, January 29th, 2023. St. Petersburg, Florida. In the early morning hours, police received multiple calls reporting a serious accident on 28th Street North near 110th Avenue North. There were two people injured and officers needed to act fast before things got worse. Police cruisers, EMS, and fire crews would be dispatched to the scene immediately. I'm Tyler and this is your daily dose of crime. We should have stayed home. We should have stayed home. Need about two more officers over here on the south side to start talking. I told him stay. I told him get in the truck. You didn't listen to me. It's my fault. I should have stopped him. I should have told him to go. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. 13. I know. I know. I know, Papy. It's not your fault for the south of the scene. Oh, it's okay, buddy. Don't blame us on you. That's all you wanted to do is play Fortnite with me. We should have just stayed home. Is she going to say she's going to sue you? She's going to kill you. Your life is [ __ ] Your life is dealing, bro. She's going to take the shot, the house, the car. She's going to do anything. Don't worry about that. Over. Relax. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about your brother right now. This person notification. No, you're not. You relax. Calm down. Just calm down. Hey, calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Hey, listen. The anger, whatever you feel, it's not going to bring your brother back. Relax. Okay. You don't want to go to jail. You don't want to do nothing stupid. I'm good here. I'm just I know you don't care, buddy. But hey, I lost one. I'm not going to lose another. I don't care. Calm down. Carefarms, son. Calm the down, please. I don't need you in handcuffs. I just want to hug him one last time. I do too. Poy, hug Poppy. He was looking at me. His eyes were open when I got to him. Poppy, hug me. Hug me. His eyes were open. Just hug me. He went out in pain. He didn't go out easy. Hug me. Just hug me. [ __ ] me. I know. [ __ ] you. Hug me. [ __ ] me. Hug me. I'm the reason he like cars. I'm the reason he like cars. Whoever hit him. I want that. I want dead. I want him dead. I don't care. Calm down. Hey. Hey, stop what you saying, dude. One person would be injured and one pronounced dead on site. 13-year-old Ethan Martin had died in the crash. His brother and father were both present when it happened. But what exactly had occurred? Johnny Martin, the boy's father, had tried to calm down his other son, who was devastated over his brother's death and furious with the other person involved. The team believed the motorcyclist was fully to blame, but police had to investigate what had really happened before making any arrests without evidence. It was a delicate situation and officers had to proceed carefully. It's my baby boy. Motorcycle up there. You know my baby boy, too. And I need you here, too. Okay. Let him do it. Let him do his job. Okay. Father's right. It's a traffic homicide investigation. Right now, you need to be there for your dad and your dad needs to be there for you. All right. That's all you need to worry about. When you're ready, we need to get you over to the side. I can be with your friends and other family members. I want you to see everything and stay right here. You got bad memories. When you're able to move, I want you to walk over with me. We'll get you to a safer place. Okay. I want to get both of you together. Hug him one last time. That's not my call. We got this. Stay strong. All right. Watch. Hey, let go. Let go. Honey. Talk to you. Get up. Pick him up. Puppy. Walk together. Come on. Let go. Walk. All right. We're going to walk. Walk. Walk. It's okay. Dad needs you and you guys need to stay together right now and walk this way. Come let that anger go, bro. [Applause] Hey [ __ ] bro. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. It's not helmet, dude. You're not going to hurt yourself. This ising gas can hurt yourself. Hey, I'm I'm officer hall. Were we all over here witness? We was literally one foot away. We was walking in the He's his brother, but we were walking with him. I want to hear what y'all saw. Do you mind if we just go ahead and step outside on the side? I saw his brother get hit. Do you mind if we go over here and Yeah, come on. Ethan's brother was escorted away from the scene with his friends. Officers needed to calm him down so that they could get his statement, which was crucial, but the teen remained angry and uncooperative, making it difficult for police to move things along. Meanwhile, the boy's friends, who had also witnessed the crash, began giving their account of what had happened. What's her name, man? What's her name? Mason. Casey. Casey, I want to Mason. Mason. Mason. Right. Is it okay if we go speak over here? Why don't we get away from this part over here? Look, man. Got to stay over here. Okay. Yeah. I got to let him know something, bro. We'll let him know. We'll let him know. Can't let him know, man. Man, can't be coming back in the scene. Okay. Can't be coming back. I got to let him know, bro. I got to let him know, man. Trying to be cool with you. It's just between me and him. It's between me and him. He was going to come over here, too. Okay. Just between me and Let me talk to him. Let me talk to him. Let me talk to him. Let me talk to him. Come on. You'll get to get Let me talk to him. Let me talk to him. Let me talk to him. Like, my bad for my language, B, but you're good, man. You're good. You're good. Apologize for that at all. Just give us a little bit. Just stay on the end of the scene. We're going to talk with you one at a time. Come on. Let me talk to him at least. Investigation. Bro, what the dude is 13. 12, bro. Dude is 12. 13. 13. Same. Hey, he's not, bro. He just got pronounced as a teen. Oh god. Bro, what the is this, bro? I was just trying to talk with everybody and see what happened. Bro, I think that's just one at a time. What's your name, man? Is that your That's your legal name, right? Yes. Okay. Give me one second. We were walking because our truck was parked over by side. We were walking and a whole bunch of people started saying, "Watch out." this we were crossing the road and a motorcycle with no lights, no nothing came speeding down the road. All of a sudden, Ethan, we were literally all walking in a group and it was him in the back and all of a sudden and just no lights, no nothing like that. You said when y'all were crossed from that side, right back over, y'all checked and you didn't see any lights or anything like that? Did y'all What did you hear? Like whether it sound like a loud engine, sound like it was speeding or going faster than usual. It was definitely going faster than normal cuz I'm not going to lie. Everyone out here was racing. Yeah. And we're not going to hold that against y'all. Yeah, I know. I'm just saying racing. I came by to show that like show out drive past all the time and then his name is Ethan. Ethan. That's all I know. Is that any kind of blood relation to you? No, that's the kid that was on the white shirt on the ground was it's his brother. Okay. All of us are just friends of the brother. Of the brother. And then what's the brother's name? Uh Johnny. Johnny. That's all I know. Fernandez. Actually, I think Fernandez is Johnny Fernandez. You know how old he is? Uh 18 or 19. And I'm just whatever you remember. Um we were walking across the street. We heard an argument. We were coming from the truck and they were coming from that side of the street. We were coming from that side. We parked. So like they're over here, right? Yeah. And we heard a bike and we we tried telling everybody to get out the way. Everybody was saying get out the way. There was no lights. I didn't know where it was coming from. I thought it was farther back towards the bridge. And I looked back and all I seen is Ethan body just flying at half. You said there were no bikes, no lights on the vehicle, right? Could you when y'all were crossing the road, who was arguing? I don't even know. It happened so fast. You're good, man. You're good. I just remember walking across the street, hearing a bike, and seeing his body just fly. Everybody just spread out. Didn't know what was going on. I was in front of him. I tried grabbing him, but I didn't know where the bike was. So, the bike was right in front of you, too. So, it was right in front of you, too. Stop. Stop. Stop. According to the first statements, they had been watching a car show when they decided to cross the street to where more people were gathered. And that's when people suddenly began yelling to watch out, but nobody could see anything at first or understand what was going on. That's when a motorcycle with no headlights came speeding toward them and hit Ethan as he was crossing. There was no time to react and in the blink of an eye, something happened that would change many lives forever. I would have took the impact. It's me. Trust me old. I don't give a about me. It's 13, man. I'll be 14. It was supposed to be just a car show. Nobody racing. Nobody was even racing at all. What ended up happening? All the people The only thing was people just spinning tires. That's it. And they just stopped 10 ft. That's it. 10 ft. 20 ft. Yeah. But nobody was racing at all. Okay. And then I went over here to look at to take a video of a car that I liked. So I crossed the street and then some motorcycle crash. I ran to the motorcycle. I didn't know he he crashed because he hit my son. Instead of running that way, I went that way. I didn't know Ethan was behind me. He was supposed to stay by the truck. I told him stay by the truck. by the truck. It's a car show, not a race. Nobody's supposed to be racing here. It's my first time in seven years in a race track. Come on, man. This is my boy. No, I'm not a race, but my boy. My boy. My boy. Cuz when I go close my doors in my home, I'm cry in front of him. I got to stay strong. I learned that. Look at Ethan, man. Ethan, his buddy's here. His buddy over there. Mr. Martin, you might want to ask you a few questions. I know I know you're Where were you guys sitting at when the truck was parked on the side over there? Was it on this side here? No, on the on that side. I don't know who the hell pulled it forward. Okay. My son's the designated driver. I was not driving at all. I got you. It was just couple of his friends. Let's go see the car show. Yeah, we went out last night. We didn't see. So, I was like, "All right, let's go tonight cuz y'all want y'all bugging me." So, you know, just trying to be a dad with the kids, came out. My buddy from New York was here, but he left earlier. And then we found this place. Okay. Is everybody just kind of parked on the street here? Just everybody was on the grass. Okay. And then, you know, people just peeled off a little bit like let's say from that line to like about there. That's it. Nobody raced. I didn't see no cars racing at all. And then the motorcycle down that way. Yeah. From that way this way. Okay. And when it hit the ground, I was like, "Oh, it's a motorcycle." I started running to help the motorcycle, not knowing. I didn't know he put it out. The son My son No, no problem. Cuz I want to help him. I want to help my son. I could have the CPR until y'all got here. Four other kids at the house. She can't leave them alone. I don't want to bother her. 45 and that's the closest uh waters in the uh waters in Havana Tampa. Yeah. Okay. If I pass a B license, I can drive. But you give me B lights, you can't give me do other one, dude. I don't want no more. That's why I had my son drive. No, no more. No more. It's all right. You're all right. You're okay. It's not okay, man. You can say it's okay all you want, but it's not okay. Johnny explained that there weren't supposed to be any races. No one was meant to be driving fast, and it was only a car exhibition. Ethan was supposed to stay in the truck with his father, but the boy had decided to follow his brother instead. And that changed everything. There weren't supposed to be any risks. Everything was meant to be safe and under control. But someone chose to recklessly ride at 100 mph in a crowded area with no headlights. And nobody could expect something like that to end well. There's always someone who makes a dumb choice. And now an entire family is in mourning over Ethan's death. Were you out here? Did you see uh maybe what happened down there? No. No. No. You weren't out here or you just didn't see it? I just got a call. Put your hand out of your pocket for me, will you? Yes. Let me just take everything out. No. No. You're fine, man. What's going on, man? All right. Uh, well, we were here and uh I know I just saw I just saw the bike coming down and Was it a bunch of bikes? Was it one bike? It was one bike. The bike came down. And was the bike racing another bike? No, it was not. Just one bike randomly driving. One bike. How fast was he driving butt? Probably around I don't know cuz he was he was on the brakes as well. Do you think you could just talk to that officer over there for me? Thank you. He was on the brakes as well, so I don't know cuz And there was a bunch of cars right here, so I really couldn't see what happened. Oh, in this spot right here. Right over there is where I was. Right over there is where I was. And I there just a bunch of cars. So I just saw him coming in. I mean, probably about 90 here. And I just I just see the bike slowing down and all of a sudden I just hear and that's it. Yeah. Let me take a look. And then that's pretty much everything I saw. I seen like he hit his brakes. I saw I heard the bike just go and the the the clutch go in. Okay. Like as if it was slowing down. The clutch was as if it was slowing down. And all I just hear you heard some type of boom or something. I couldn't really see it cuz there was just a bunch of cars here. Okay. Do you know who was riding the bike? Um I believe his name is Carlos. Yeah. I mean he's down there. So I mean it's not like we don't know who it is. So, I mean it it just I believe the name is Carlos. Yes. Carlos, you believe? Yeah. Okay. The one that I believe the one that came the bike it was there was another bike and it came after. It came after the other bike. Came after the other bike. And that one that one had no headlights on. That one had no headlights on. Yes. What color was it? Do you know? It was dark. discovered. [Music] At this time, I could clearly tell it had nothing in front of you. Okay. Like nobody all the way pretty on both sides or just There were cars on the other side, too. There's a lot of cars on the other side. Yes. And then basically people were racing. There's people racing. Yes. There's people racing. But the motorcycle the bike the the bike that got into the accident I was I saw it come down it was not it didn't have another bike next to it. Okay. Was he driving fast? Probably around I don't know 80 75 75 maybe 75 80. Yeah. And then I just I just hear I hear it slow down pretty quick. Okay. like cuz it was it it was in the the RPMs were up were high and I just hear the I guess he pulled the clutch in the RPMs just go down. Okay. I just hear you know what lane he was in? Um I believe it was this close one. This close one. Yeah. Okay. Another witness who had been on a different part of the ground said that he didn't see the crash himself, but had seen the motorcycle speeding through the area without headlights. According to him, the bike had no business going that fast, especially not in the dark. And it caught everyone's attention. So your cross your truck was on this side. Yeah. And I crossed the street because the cars were on this side. Yeah. There was cars on both sides, but I came over here to look at cars. And then I said, "Ethan, stay here with your brother by the truck." You told him to stay on the right side. Yes. Okay. And then when I cross the street, I was walking and I seen the motorcycle crash on my motorcycle crash. I'm trying to run to the motorcycle guy to help him. And then that's when they're like, "Your son got hit." I stopped, turn around, and I ran to Ethan. Okay. Cuz Ethan's dead. I ran to Ethan, bro. And and I put my hand on his chest like, "Get up, buddy. Get up. Get up. Get up." Smack him his face. Get him up. I tried to do CPR on him. Move, man. He need to move. Radio 32. Where's your son at? He's over there. What's his name? He's Johnny Jun. Okay. Um Francis is I contacted her a while back ago. Uh should have been here by now. I don't know. Let me see. But uh what what does she drive? A white SUV or a black truck. I got word. I told the other officer. Apparently he told my son that he's going to come shoot me. The step. Yeah. That that's why we got multiple officers out there. I want him arrested on scene for threatening my life. Okay. Well, we can't arrest him. He threatened to kill me. Yeah. Well, the thing is it's over the phone. So, he's let the voicemail threat to kill me before I have the voicemail on my phone. Well, the thing is he can't carry out that threat. Now, if he comes here and obviously bees, there's something that's why these two guys are here. Yeah. And there's two people on the other side. I'm not here to to start nothing. I don't want no problem. I'm defending myself. And I already told the other cop that he already left. I got a heart condition. Okay. So, what I'm going to try to do is talk to everybody else and I'll go get my son. Get you guys so you can leave. All right. Martin recalled the moment he realized Ethan had been hit and how he had rushed to help his son. But despite everything he tried, the boy was already unresponsive. So, how would the police move forward with the case? Um, who you staying with? My dad. Okay. We seen some people arguing. My dad was like, "Let's go see if we can break it up." So, we go over there. Everybody's on the other side of the road. I told my little brother, "Stay in the car in case anything happens." We told him, "Stay at the car." But my homeboy didn't want anybody to try anything towards him since he's a little kid. So, we told him, "Come with us." I will shoot you. We all make it over. All you hear is people screaming, "Watch out! Watch out!" I turn. I see a black figure coming fast as I'm literally standing like this. I take one step back. I just feel my foot being pressured over and I see my little brother. My head is so right now. First thing I did is I ran to him cuz I'm the only person that's seen him. Everybody Yeah. Everybody else is like, "Ethan, Ethan." Or, "No, nobody even thought about him. Everybody was running towards the guy on the bike." And then I started yelling to my dad. I was like, "Bro, Ethan, Ethan, Ethan." I run straight to him. Everybody's already like a good 100 ft away. So, they didn't make it. I get to him. His eyes are open. He's looking at me. I just see a tear drop out of his eyes. I was like, "You'll be okay. You'll be okay." I'm holding him, holding him. My head's on his chest. I feel his heart racing. and then his chest goes down. I knew it was done. I knew we was done. So you guys were on the east side of the road. We were on that side and then argument was over here. So we all got over there and arguing, dude. No, it was just a group of people. Like this is supposed to be a car show. Everybody was just looking at cars, listening to music, and then this jackass goes all the way down. We thought he was leaving. Just racing down with no lights. No lights. We I didn't see no light. All I seen was just a dark figure coming at me. Uh he did uh cuz one of the people down there, they had uh they didn't they don't have video of obviously what took place afterwards, but they had a video of him coming down just prior to the accident. His he did have his head on. Go ahead. Well, if he had his lights out, he could have seen those people in the middle of the road. He should have smashed on his brakes before then. Maybe my little brother will still be alive. Maybe he could be alive and just missing a leg. I don't know. I I can't say what happened like just after, but all right. Ethan's brother said he had tried hard to convince Ethan to stay in the car, but the younger boy followed them anyway. He described the moment they crossed the street and like the witnesses said that everything happened so fast. There was no time to react and he couldn't save his brother. To police, it looked like there may be more than one person responsible despite what Ethan's father and brother had believed. But without evidence and solid proof, the case was much more complicated than the family realized. That's unfortunately that's the only clue that I can uh give because it's the only thing that didn't have any blood or anything on it. Okay. So, where we're at in the case, uh I've been discussing with the state attorney about possibly filing charges and stuff like that. Okay. I guess the motorcyclist and even the uncle for basically allowing his nephew to ride the motorcycle. No, no, he he he's he's of age, but the thing is is he doesn't have a motorcycle endorsement, so he shouldn't have been riding that bike. Uncle was there, the owner like and everything. And obviously the nephew was too. All right, so that's where we're at on the investigation. I'm still conducting it. It's still kind of early, but I have discussed it with the state. Okay. Have my lawyer on top of this, too. I'm Is that Mr. Fry? Yeah. I'm the right way. I'm not going to attack the guy. I'm going to let the law. That's That's exactly what you said. I know that they say a lot of things. I was pissed. Yeah. And I was hurt, but I'm going let you guys handle this. Okay. At first, I was scared cuz I put him in danger, man. Make sure your nerve was on. All right. I thought I was going to go to jail. Just trying to have fun on my side. So, all right. Go ahead. Ever took a fishing. All I do is take a fish. Put your hands down. Okay. I'll explain to you. Yeah. Yeah. You just you got some wide shoulders. So, yeah. Makes it a little more comfortable for you. [Applause] You got anything? A little tight? Twist my loosen up a little bit. How's that? Better. Anything in your pocket? I'm wearing one. You want those to go to uh your wife? Okay. The shoe also. Huh? You want the shoe to go with you? With with her? Yeah. Let's get a bag, please. Cell phone, too. Yes. Okay. My wallet. Okay. And I appreciate this, you know. Just take his watch off there. Here. Um, nothing in your shoes. Nothing like that on these. Okay. They're going to check them when we bring it outside. So, and this little bracelet we can take it off. It's a [ __ ] for my mom. She passed away last year. Is there a way to take it off without doing it? Okay. So, what you're being charged with is basically child neglect. um having your son out there at that time of night, you know, car, you know, it's supposed to be a car show. And in all intents and purposes, most people don't have a car show at 12:30 at night in a pitch dark area where there's very little, you know. Um, also, I'm going to I got to go back to my computer. I'm going to hit you with it's a citation of basically street racing as a spectator. It's a moving violation. So, all right. Misdemeanor or felony? That's that's just a moving the charge. The charge it's a a felony. So, okay. So, we're going to take this out. This officer is going to stay with you until I get done with the paperwork and then transport me. Uh, somebody will transport you to the uh county jail. Okay. I'll probably be there all night. So, all right. All right. Johnny Julio Martin, age 35, would be arrested on a charge of child neglect related to his son's death. He was released after posting a $10,000 bond. And months later, the state chose not to prosecute due to a lack of evidence showing Martin knew any illegal racing was going on. Carlos Fernandez, age 21, the motorcycle rider, and Alan Borland Jr., the 40-year-old owner of the bike, were both arrested. Months later, prosecutors did not press charges against Borland. Fernandez was charged with vehicular homicide, manslaughter, and reckless driving, causing serious bodily injury. He could face several years in prison or probation, depending on how the case unfolds and his criminal record.