State v. Martinez, 924 N.W.2d 295

Defendant Larry G. Martinez was convicted by a jury of first degree murder and use of a firearm; this Court affirmed his convictions on direct appeal (State v. Martinez, 295 Neb. 1).
Facts: Martinez shot and killed his romantic partner, Mandy Kershman, while she sat on a couch; eyewitness heard an altercation and the shooter say "this is for you, bitch" before the shot; Martinez admitted the shooting to police and a roommate and led police to a gun.
Pretrial, Martinez moved to suppress statements based on a claimed hearing impairment under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-152 and also moved to suppress as involuntary; the district court denied suppression and later found Martinez competent to be sentenced. This Court affirmed both rulings on direct appeal.
After conviction, Martinez sought postconviction relief asserting ineffective assistance of trial counsel for (1) failing to present his mental capacity to suppress his statements as involuntary, and (2) failing to argue diminished capacity negated premeditation, deliberation, and intent.
The district court denied the postconviction motion without an evidentiary hearing, reasoning the claims could have been raised on direct appeal and, alternatively, lacked prejudice; this Court reviewed and affirmed the denial.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Martinez)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Whether counsel was ineffective for not using Martinez's mental capacity to argue his custodial statements were involuntary	Counsel should have introduced evidence of low IQ/mental impairment to show statements involuntary under voluntariness standards	Interview video and record show no coercive police conduct; voluntariness depends on government coercion, not only defendant's vulnerabilities	Denied — no coercive police conduct; mental-capacity emphasis would not have rendered statements involuntary; counsel not ineffective for failing to raise meritless argument
Whether counsel was ineffective for not presenting mental-capacity evidence to rebut first-degree murder elements (premeditation, deliberation, intent)	Mental impairment would have shown Martinez lacked ability to form requisite intent or deliberate/premeditate	Trial record contains strong evidence of intent, planning, and deliberation (threat a week earlier, statements of intent, admission he planned to shoot after a text, statement at scene, hiding the gun)	Denied — even if additional mental-capacity evidence had been presented, no reasonable probability of different outcome given overwhelming evidence of intent and premeditation

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (establishes ineffective-assistance-of-counsel two-prong test)
Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368 (framework for suppression of involuntary confessions)
State v. Martinez, 295 Neb. 1 (direct appeal upholding denial of suppression and competency finding)
State v. Hernandez, 299 Neb. 896 (coercive police activity is necessary predicate for finding a confession involuntary)
State v. Braesch, 292 Neb. 930 (elements of first-degree murder: purposeful killing with deliberation and premeditation)
State v. Lyle, 258 Neb. 263 (postconviction denial permissible where record shows no reasonable probability of a different result)