Donut Store Murder.

Too close to home

 ======================================================================

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Shooting victim known as good guy

Mesquite: Doughnut shop owner killed after complying with robber

09:01 PM CDT on Thursday, May 17, 2007

By RICHARD ABSHIRE / The Dallas Morning News rabshire@dallasnews.com

Luck is fickle.

Maybe, like justice, it's blind.

Two men crossed paths with Tommy Gene Smith on Wednesday morning before the chase and gunfight that left him dead and a Dallas police officer wounded.

One of those men lived; the other died.

Manuel Martinez, 34, who had worked for years to save enough money to buy the two Mesquite doughnut shops where he worked with his best friend, came face to face with Mr. Smith about 10 a.m. Wednesday when the gunman robbed the shop at 2727 Motley Drive in Mesquite.  A witness told police Mr. Martinez, 34, did everything the robber demanded. He was even trying to help Mr. Smith take the shop's cash register.

But Mr. Martinez's luck ran out. For reasons he took to the grave, Mr. Smith pushed Mr. Martinez away and shot him point blank in the chest. The young businessman died a short time later at a hospital.

"He's just a bad dude, a meth-head kind of guy," Mesquite police Lt. Steve Callarman, a department spokesman, said of the gunman. "He just decided this was his day to die, for whatever reasons. He was going to take as many people with him as he could."

According to police reports, Mr. Smith left the cash register behind as he stormed out of the doughnut shop and headed for a nearby Whataburger, where he robbed that restaurant and some of its customers.

At Whataburger he ran into William Marlon Harris, who was one day from his 73rd birthday. As the gunman was leaving the eatery, witnesses told police, he leveled his pistol at Mr. Harris and pulled the trigger.

Mr. Harris' luck held. Others in the restaurant reported hearing the click as the gun failed to fire.

Then Mr. Smith, 39, rushed outside to the fate that awaited him. After a chase down U.S. Highway 80 and Interstate 30, he exited near Winslow Avenue, crashed his car, briefly took a woman hostage and died in a barrage of police bullets. Dallas police Senior Cpl. Gerald Melgoza suffered a minor wrist wound during the confrontation.

At the Martinez home Thursday, Mr. Martinez's sister Dr. Rosie Martinez, 27, described her brother as a hard worker who took care of everybody in the family -- including his wife, Maria Segura; mother, Maria Ramizez; and sons, Alexis, 11, and Bryan, 5. He also enjoyed soccer, serving as a player-coach for a team called Mexico.

Dr. Martinez, a chiropractor, said her brother's dream was to one day go to law school. She said he had helped her get an education, telling her upon her graduation from chiropractic school, "You made it before I did.  I'm so proud of you."

Dr. Martinez said her brother's immediate plans were "to own as many doughnut shops as possible, to have something for his children, so they could get a better education."

The shop on Motley was closed Thursday, its front an impromptu memorial of flowers, cards and notes.

Patsy Solis, who worked at the shop, left a note in Spanish asking Mr. Martinez's family to call her. "I want to see him for the last time," the note said. "I am very sorry."

Later, Ms. Solis said Mr. Martinez had saved her life. She usually worked at the shop but hadn't been able to come in on Wednesday.

"He was working there for me," she said.

Mack Carmac, who knew Mr. Martinez and his best friend, Francisco Lee, from their days as doughnut shop employees together, stopped by to pay his respects. "He was a nice guy," Mr. Carmac said of Mr. Martinez.

He told how Mr. Martinez and Mr. Lee baked doughnuts at their other shop, on North Mesquite Street just off Gus Thomasson, then divided the baked goods between the two shops.

But Mr. Martinez, who was born in Mexico, wasn't content to wait for customers to come to him, Mr. Carmac said. He also called on car dealerships along LBJ and sold his doughnuts to them.

"He was a hustler, a hard worker," Mr. Carmac said. "There is no doubt in my mind that he came here for a better life, and he was working hard for it."

Four funeral sprays stood on wire stands in front of the locked shop Thursday, along with four glass vases of blossoms, a large plastic tub full of flowers in plastic sleeves and two potted plants.

In addition, there were two small teddy bears -- one white and one brown with "Jesus Loves Me" on its shirt.

A poster taped to the shop's front window read: "You are in our hearts and prayers. The love you put in the donuts is being returned."

On another poster: "What happened here today is a real tragedy for this community. Our hearts go out to the family of the businessman, who was pleasant and ran a nice, clean shop. Don't let his death be in vain! Get the bad guys out of this community and keep them out! Sincerely, A patron."

Mr. Smith was, by all accounts, one of the bad guys.

He'd had his three strikes -- three felony convictions that in some cases in some places would have meant life in prison without parole.

He drew a 15-year sentence after each of three arrests in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- for possession of dangerous drugs, burglary and aggravated robbery -- but was paroled each time.

Customers and neighbors stopped by Mr. Martinez's shop throughout the day Thursday. They all said he was a nice guy, a quiet guy, a hard worker.

Horace Stanbery and his daughter, Donna Stanbery, shook their heads.

"It's sad," Ms. Stanbery said. "This shop has been here for years. I used to get doughnuts here when I was a kid."

Cheryl Copeland of Flowers by Cheryl, next door to the doughnut shop, called Mr. Martinez an "easy-to-live-with neighbor."

"Life is precious," she said. "And the only safe place is in God's hands. Our prayers go out to Manuel's family."

Funeral arrangements for Mr. Martinez were pending at Lincoln Funeral Home.

Staff writer Tanya Eiserer contributed to this report.