Didn't mean to shoot you in the face

An Oceanside man accused of shooting two people pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on March 27.

Diego Arturo Martinez admitted to firing the rifle that killed Robert Earl Robbins, 47, the night of August 29, 2012, as Robbins and Lisa Badgett were sitting in their vehicle in front of his home.

Martinez has been held in custody in lieu of $5 million bail since the night of the fatal confrontation, when he was 20.

In the plea deal, charges of second-degree murder and willfully discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle have been dismissed.

In a jury trial last summer, Martinez was acquitted of first-degree murder, but the jury could not agree on lesser charges. After hearing evidence for more than six days, the jury then deliberated about three days.

The same jury declared Martinez not guilty of attempted murder and not guilty of attempted manslaughter on 49-year-old Lisa Badgett, who was seated in the driver’s seat. Badgett survived a gunshot to her face and was the first to give testimony at trial.

Martinez took the witness box on two days during his trial, in June of 2014, and told the jury that he did not mean to shoot the woman, who was in the truck parked in the 4700 block of Calle Solimar.

Martinez’s retrial had been set for April 27.

Badgett, who witnessed her boyfriend’s death, is expected to speak at the sentencing hearing for Martinez in three months.

Martinez is expected to get 21 years in state prison when he is sentenced by judge Carlos Armour in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse on June 26.