Mexican Worker to Stand Trial in Engineer’s Death

VISTA â€”  An undocumented worker from Mexico on Wednesday was ordered to stand trial as an accessory to the murder of a 23-year-old Carlsbad engineer killed after an argument outside a Leucadia restaurant earlier this year.

Ildefonso Perez Martinez was bound over for trial by Municipal Court Judge William Draper despite the failure of the prosecution’s star witness to identify the man who allegedly accompanied the killer.

Greg Nakatani, a General Dynamics engineer, was shot to death Sept. 20 after an argument with two men outside a taco shop. The argument started after the men’s car door struck Nakatani’s truck, leaving a small scratch.

The case has made headlines because the victim’s parents said that the case against their son’s killer was bungled by law enforcement officials, who initially arrested and then released Martinez although he had confessed to being at the shooting.

After Alexander and Jane Nakatani complained to Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, a special investigator was assigned to the case, and Martinez was arrested again and charged with accessory to murder. The suspected shooter, Antonio Lopez Yescas, 26, is believed to be hiding in Mexico.

Martinez, 25, of Oaxaca, Mexico, works as a gardener in North County.