Following two hours of testimony and argument on June 24, a judge ruled a man cannot withdraw his guilty plea to first-degree murder in a Point Loma after claiming his attorney provided ineffective counsel.

The ruling means Ernesto Castellanos Martinez, now 46, will get 45 years to life in prison for shooting Alexander Mazin (above), 27, outside the 24-Hour Fitness center at 3675 Midway Drive at 10:50 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2018.

Mazin was dating Martinez’s ex-girlfriend and Martinez was jealous. Mazin came to her defense at the same fitness center when Martinez confronted her. Several weeks later he was shot three times. Martinez fled to Mexico but was extradited here in 2020.

“He has not shown good cause,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge Eugenia Eyherabide. “His attorney was a long-time public defender… 30 years.”

Deputy District Attorney Melissa Mack argued successfully that Martinez had “buyer’s remorse” over his guilty plea and was “not being truthful” about his problems with his former attorney.

Afterward, Mazin’s parents, Penelope and Jeffrey Mazin of Pacific Beach embraced Mack. “You were spectacular,” said Jeffrey Mazin, a physician, to the prosecutor.

The parents gave an interview to KFMB-TV Channel 8 and KGTV Ch. 10 several weeks after their son was killed. Penelope Mazin recalled her son leaving for his workout and telling him she loved him without realizing it was for the last time.

“I really feel like we had a great relationship while he was alive,” said Penelope Mazin in the 2018 interview.

Eyherabide set sentencing for July 15. Martinez remains in jail without bail.

He pleaded guilty on Dec. 15, 2021, to first-degree murder, which carries a term of 25 years to life, and admitted using a gun in a homicide. The gun charge adds 20 years consecutively, and he will receive 45 years to life in prison, according to his plea form.

His new attorney, Vickie Fernandes, argued that Martinez never had a Spanish-speaking interpreter over 18 months when he talked with his lawyer, Liza Suwczinsky, or in court until after he pleaded guilty. He had an interpreter on Friday.

Fernandes said English was his second language and he didn’t come to the U.S. until he was 19 years old. She said his IQ was determined to be 59 – a low figure, according to psychological tests, and that he had traumatic brain injuries from boxing.

“Not once did he request an interpreter,” argued the prosecutor, who added that he did have “mastery of the English language” when he told a probation officer that he didn’t want to talk to him because he “wanted to withdraw his plea and wanted a trial.”

Fernandes countered by saying it was the duty of Suwczinsky to get an interpreter, not wait for the defendant to ask for one. She called Suwczinsky as a witness.

“My opinion is he understood everything going on in his case,” said Suwczinsky, who added that she kept telling him it was his decision if he wanted to plead guilty.

Suwczinsky said Martinez told her after the preliminary hearing which witnesses were not helpful and which witnesses were useful to his case. “I thought he understood,” she said.

Suwczinsky said she told Martinez that if he were convicted at a trial of murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, that carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole. With the guilty plea, he still has the possibility of parole when he is quite elderly.

The judge said she reviewed the transcript of when Martinez pleaded guilty before her because “this was a significant change of plea.” Eyherabide said he never indicated he didn’t understand something.

“The record speaks for itself,” said Eyherabide.

Alexander Mazin operated a business in Pacific Beach for several years.