The DA’s office said it is still investigating whether it might bring charges against anyone else in connection with Jaxon’s death, both inside and out of the county agency. Martinez was briefly arrested but released.
“This is not the first time that this has happened,” Rosen told reporters after Monday’s hearing. “People in the public, and myself as the DA, would like to know who is responsible criminally, civilly, morally, ethically, systemically.
“Why are horrible and tragic crimes happening to children in the care and custody of the Department of Family and Children’s Services over and over and over again?” he said.
Rosen’s comments come after revelations about Martinez’s criminal history last week renewed scrutiny of the department.
According to court and police records, Martinez had a prior felony conviction for child endangerment, which prohibits the Department of Family and Children’s Services from placing a child in her care, even in an emergency, per the county’s own policy.
Martinez was convicted of felony child endangerment and a misdemeanor DUI in 2014, when she was found with “red watery eyes, slurred speech and a strong odor of an intoxicating beverage” while driving her 1-year-old daughter. At the time of her arrest, her license was suspended due to a prior DUI conviction in 2011. She was also charged with another DUI in 2020 in Stanislaus County.
It’s not clear if the Department of Child Services knew of the charges against Martinez. The county did not explain how Jaxon came to be placed under her care.
A sign says, “Justice for Jaxon” outside the Santa Clara County Juvenile Court in San José on April 20, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
When he was born, Jaxon lived with his mother, Brianna Burton, and his father, Albert Juarez. Burton died of alcohol abuse last year, and he was placed in the county’s custody. Jaxon then lived with a foster family before he was transferred to a maternal grandparent near Sacramento for six months.
While there, the grandparent had to bring the boy to the South Bay for regular visits with his father, a requirement that prevented the grandparent from continuing to serve as a guardian. In February, Jaxon was transferred to live with Martinez.
Riley Wallace, Jaxon’s aunt, said she and family members in Arizona had asked the court to allow Jaxon to live with them, but were denied because of the distance from Jaxon’s father.
“It is completely unacceptable,” Wallace told KQED last week. “They did not protect a child, and that’s their job, that’s what they took the child for, to protect him. And they failed him so terribly.”
A crowd listens to District Attorney Jeff Rosen speak outside the Santa Clara County Juvenile Court in San José on April 20, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
She said they were told they’d need to wait for Jaxon to be put up for adoption.
According to Wallace, the family plans to sue the agency, saying Jaxon never should have been placed with Martinez. The Department of Family and Children’s Services is already facing a lawsuit by the grandfather of another young child, 6-year-old Jordan Walker, who died in 2023. He was stabbed to death by a relative in a home in San José that August.
“This is not a one-off. It’s the third time, and that’s just murder,” Rosen said. “We’re not talking about the other children under the care of the Department of Family and Children’s Services who have been abused sexually and physically in the last few years.
“I think there’s important questions to ask officials at the highest level in the county,” Rosen said.
Zariah Garduno (left) and Ethan Guadamuz wait outside the Santa Clara County Juvenile Court in San José on April 20, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Both the San José Police Department and the Department of Family and Children’s Services are investigating Jaxon’s case, and the county has asked the state’s Department of Social Services to conduct its own independent investigation.
Martinez’s son is due back in court on May 21 to be appointed an attorney. According to Rosen, it could be months before the judge determines whether to grant the DA’s office request to transfer the case to adult court.
Outside the courtroom on Monday, Dominguez-Estrada and a high school classmate of the suspect were among a group calling for him to be tried as an adult.
“This should be in the court where people can see, and it’s open to the public,” she said.
KQED’s Joseph Geha and Ayah Ali-Ahmad contributed to this report.
