Man with history of running from police sentenced for death of woman in Kennewick chase

A 37-year-old man will spend nearly two decades in prison after a high-speed chase turned fatal for his passenger.

Deputies believed Antonio De Jesus Martinez of Kennewick had shot at a police officer when they tried to stop him on March 26, 2023.

While it turned out that Martinez didn’t have anything to do with the shooting, he didn’t stop for deputies, leading to a chase that reached 90 mph through Kennewick.

At the end, he slammed into another deputy’s car, killing Jessica Sanders, the 39-year-old riding in Martinez’s car, and hurting the deputy.

More than a year after the fatal crash grabbed headlines, Martinez pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and having a gun illegally.

Martinez’s troubled history included running from Pasco police in 2019. He faced between 17 1/2 years and 23 years in prison.

Judge David Petersen followed the prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Martinez to 18 years and four months in prison.

Martinez has been in the Benton County jail since the fatal crash. He was driving a dark 2007 Nissan Sentra, when a person in another dark car opened fire at a Kennewick police officer on Ely Street at 4:20 a.m..

A Benton County deputy spotted Martinez’s Sentra and tried to stop him near West Creekstone Drive and Union Street.

When the deputy turned on his emergency lights Martinez fled.

Martinez then drove north on North Irving then east on 10th Avenue and blew through a stop sign, said the documents.

The deputy reported that the suspect was traveling east on 10th at 90 mph and ran a red light when he crossed Highway 395.

Martinez then turned onto West 8th Place which connects to South Vancouver Street, and then turned left and struck a deputy’s car that was headed south on Vancouver.

The collision killed Sanders and hurt Benton County Deputy James Carneau McKay.

Troubled history

This was not the first time Martinez has been accused of fleeing from police at high speeds.

Martinez was released in November 2021 after spending a year in prison for a 2019 police chase . In that case, he handed an officer a suspended license before driving off at speeds that reached 90 mph in a 30-mph zone.

He drove into oncoming lanes, went the wrong way on an highway off-ramp and ran stop signs in a pursuit that started at the Walmart in Pasco, according to previous Herald stories.

Officers forced Martinez’s car to spin out, but he rammed a police car and drove away.

At the time, police backed off because his driving was unsafe and erratic, but a tipster led officers to his abandoned car in Kennewick and he was arrested.

That case came about a year after he was accused of violating a protection order.

Attorneys believed his bad behavior was fueled by drug use, and gave him an opportunity to get treatment rather than serve a prison term. He was sentenced under a drug offender sentencing alternative for two cases.

According to the Washington Department of Corrections, he failed to go to treatment and was accused of running from police again in July 2020.

That led prosecutors in both counties to revoke the sentencing alternative, and he was sentenced to a year in prison in January 2021.