Defendant pleads no contest in shooting of Native activist at protest of Spanish conquistador statue

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico man pleaded no contest Monday to reduced charges of aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the shooting of a Native American activist during demonstrations about abandoned plans to reinstall a statue of a Spanish conquistador.

Ryan David Martinez skuttled his scheduled trial this week at the outset of jury selection on previous charges including attempted murder. Under terms of the plea arrangement, he accepted a combined 9 1/2-year sentence but ultimately would serve four years in prison with two years' parole if he complies with terms including restitution.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a possible hate-crime sentence enhancement. Restitution will be determined later by state probation and parole authorities.

Martinez was arrested in September 2023 after chaos erupted and a single shot was fired at an outdoor gathering in Española over aborted plans to install a bronze likeness of conquistador Juan de Oñate, who is both revered and reviled for his role in establishing early settlements along the Upper Rio Grande starting in 1598.

Multiple videos show that Martinez attempted to rush toward a makeshift shrine in opposition to installing the statue — only for Martinez to be blocked physically by a group of men. Voices can be heard saying, “Let him go,” as Martinez retreated over a short wall, pulls a handgun from his waist and fires one shot.

The shooting severely wounded Jacob Johns, of Spokane, Washington, an artist and well-traveled activist for environmental causes and an advocate for Native American rights who is of Hopi and Akimel O’odham tribal ancestry.

The assault charge stems from Martinez also pointing the gun at a female activist from the Española area before fleeing.

In a statement, Johns said he was disappointed with the plea agreement and said he still regards the shooting as a crime motivated by racial hatred and “a continuation of colonial violence.”

“The lifelong scars and injuries, loss of an internal organ, mental anguish and trauma will be with me forever — and in a couple of years Martinez will live free,” Johns said.

Attorneys for Martinez did not immediately respond to phone and email messages. They have argued that Martinez acted in self-defense.

Santa Fe-based District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies led the prosecution of Martinez and commended Johns and other witnesses to the attack for their resolve.

“The Defendant came into our community, armed with a firearm, to create and stir political discord," she said in a statement.

The shooting took place the day after Rio Arriba County officials canceled plans to install the statue in the courtyard of a county government complex. The bronze statue was taken off public display in June 2020 from a highway-side heritage center amid simmering tensions over monuments to colonial-era history.

Oñate is celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers. But he is also reviled for his brutality.

To Native Americans, Oñate is known for having ordered the right foot cut off of 24 captive tribal warriors after his soldiers stormed the Acoma Pueblo’s mesa-top “sky city.” That attack was precipitated by the killing of Oñate’s nephew.

FILE - Ryan Martinez, seated, cries during his preliminary and detention hearing in Tierra Amarilla, N.M., Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, as his attorney Nicole Moss, describes the events that led to him allegedly shooting Jacob Johns during a rally outside the Rio Arriba County Complex in Espanola. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)

FILE - Activists tend to a shooting victim during a protest where officials had planned to install a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, in Española, N.M. (Luis Sanchez Saturno/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, File)

FILE - Jennifer Marley, San Ildefonso Pueblo, and others hug after a man was shot during a rally to protest a statue of Juan Onate that was to be resurrected outside the Rio Arriba County building, in Espanola, N.M., Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)

FILE - A man who identified himself to the Albuquerque Journal as Ryan Martinez, of East Mountains, pulls a gun during a rally outside the Rio Arriba County building in Española, N.M., Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. The man scrambling at lower left was not shot. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)

FILE - Ryan Martinez is led into court for a preliminary and detention hearing at the Rio Arriba Courthouse, in Tierra Amarilla, N.M., Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is suffering from a cold and will deliver his Sunday blessing from indoors, the Vatican said, announcing the precautions ahead of a busy Christmas period and launch of the Holy Year that will sorely test Francis' stamina and health.

The Vatican cited the cold temperatures outside and Francis' strenuous week ahead, after a wheezing and congested-sounding pope delivered his annual Christmas greeting to Vatican bureaucrats earlier Saturday.

Francis, who turned 88 this past week, on Tuesday is due to inaugurate his big Holy Year and preside over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations in St. Peter's Basilica. On Thursday, he is scheduled to travel to Rome's main prison to inaugurate the Jubilee there.

Francis has long suffered bouts of bronchitis, especially in winter. In 2023, he ended up the hospital to receive intravenous antibiotics. He had part of one lung removed as a young man and frequently seems out of breath, especially after walking or exerting himself.

He took several minutes to catch his breath on Saturday, when he delivered his annual Christmas greetings to Vatican bureaucrats and lay employees. Once again, he used the occasion to admonish the backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators and urge them instead to speak well of one another.

“A church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in the life of humility, renouncing evil thinking and speaking ill of others,” Francis said. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero.”

“Beware of this,” he added.

By now Francis’ annual Christmas address to the priests, bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican Curia has become a lesson in humility -– and humilitation -- as Francis offers a public dressing down of some of the sins in the workplace at the headquarters of the Catholic Church.

In the most biting edition, in 2014, Francis listed the “15 ailments of the Curia,” in which he accused the prelates of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth. He accused them of living “hypocritical” double lives and forgetting — due to “spiritual Alzheimer’s” — that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God.

In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil lurks among them, saying it is an “elegant demon” that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.

This year, Francis revisited a theme he has often warned about: gossiping and speaking ill of people behind their backs. It was a reference to the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed environments such as the Vatican or workplaces where office gossip and criticism circulate but are rarely aired in public.

Francis has long welcomed frank and open debates and even has welcomed criticism of his own work. But he has urged critics to tell it to his face, and not behind his back.

Francis opened his address Saturday with a reminder of the devastation of the war in Gaza, where he said even his patriarch had been unable to enter due to Israeli bombing.

"Yesterday children have been bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war," he said.

The annual appointment kicks off Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, this year made even more strenuous because of the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve. The Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome over 2025, and Francis has a dizzying calendar of events to minister to them.

After addressing the Vatican prelates, Francis issued a less critical address to the Vatican’s lay employees who gathered in the city state's main audience hall along with their families. Francis thanked them for their service and urged them to make sure they take time to play with their children and visit grandparents.

“If you have any particular problems, tell your bosses, we want to resolve them,” he added at the end. “You do this with dialogue, not by keeping quiet. Together we’ll try to resolve the difficulties.”

It was an apparent reference to reports of growing unease within the Vatican workforce that has been called out by the Association of Vatican Lay Employees, the closest thing the Vatican has to a labor union. The association has in recent months voiced alarm about the health of the Vatican pension system and fears of even more cost-cutting, and demanded the Vatican leadership listen to workers’ concerns.

Earlier this year 49 employees of the Vatican Museums — the Holy See's main source of revenue — filed a class-action lawsuit in the Vatican tribunal complaining about labor woes, overtime and working conditions.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Francis arrives to exchange season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis arrives to exchange the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he exchanges season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis meets with Italian pilgrims participating in the Camino de Santiago, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis tries a skullcap received by faithful during the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)