Thomas Martinez, 36, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of 21-year-old Alijah Viramontes at what court records called an “after party location”—which is a generous way of saying an auto shop turned nightclub at 4:22 a.m. Martinez was sentenced to 25 years in prison but will get nearly four years of jail credit for time already served.
The night ended in chaos after a fight broke out and gunfire followed. Police found three people shot, and surveillance video caught Martinez holding and firing a gun. Witnesses also pegged him as the shooter. Viramontes later died at UMC.
In court, Viramontes’s mother delivered a gut-punch of a victim impact statement. She said Martinez robbed her family of a future with her son but also told him she forgives him. Her words were a reminder that in tragedies like this, nobody really wins—families are left grieving while another life wastes away behind bars.
Only in Lubbock do you have to clarify whether the “after party” is at a nightclub or an auto shop—and only in Lubbock does it end the same way: with bullets and heartbreak.
