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KEARNS — A Kearns man was charged Tuesday with stabbing and killing another man during a chaotic confrontation that allegedly started over a missing cellphone.
Anthony Land Martinez, 20, is charged in 3rd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony.
About 3 a.m. on May 29, Unified police were called to the area near 4550 W. 4920 South on a report of a stabbing. Rustyn Cristopher Opperman, 20, was found lying in the carport at the residence with a large wound on his back and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Martinez told detectives that he had gone to a house next-door to get beers and a cigarette from a woman, but the two got into a dispute that turned physical, according to charging documents. Martinez went back to his father's house, but a short time later, Opperman and several women came to his door.
The women, however, told police a slightly different story, claiming that Martinez had come to their residence "buzzed," and during the struggle with Martinez, one of the women lost her cellphone, the charges state. The women said they went to Martinez's residence to see if he took it.
After Martinez opened the door, he and Opperman began arguing, prompting Martinez to wake up his father, Benny Martinez, who then got into a fight in the driveway with Opperman, according to the charges.
Anthony Martinez told detectives that Opperman was getting the upper hand in the fight and was on top of his father, so he went to the kitchen to get a knife, returned and "went at Opperman and 'boom, boom, got him with the knife two times.' Martinez demonstrated stabbing Opperman in the back, making a quick, two-pump stabbing motion," charging documents state.
Martinez then swore at the women and made comments, such as telling them not to step on his property and proclaiming "self-defense, homie. We're in (expletive) Kearns," the charges state.
The women told detectives, however, that Martinez, his father and his father's girlfriend "rushed" at Opperman, according to the charges, and that it was Benny Martinez who had the upper hand in the fight when Anthony Martinez retrieved a knife.
An autopsy determined that Opperman was stabbed three times.
Benny Tobias Martinez, 44, was also arrested for investigation of murder by Unified police. As of Tuesday, however, no formal charges had been filed against him.
