A Cheyenne man on trial for first-degree murder in the death of his 4-month-old son told detectives he was “ashamed” that he didn’t inform them that he knew his wife had killed their baby.
“I hate that I chose my wife over my kids,” Joseph Hanson, 24, said in an April 9 interview with police that was videotaped and shown to a jury in Laramie County District Court on Tuesday.
Hanson told detectives he learned sometime in September 2025 that his wife, Juliette Martinez, 23, had told their pastor’s wife that she was responsible for their baby not breathing on Aug. 8, 2025. But he said he didn’t go to the police.
Hanson told Judge Peter Froelicher that he wants to testify Wednesday, but could also change his mind.
Hanson also admitted he was arguing with Martinez, his girlfriend at the time. He had written a note relinquishing his parental rights to his son. The infant, who has a still living twin, is referenced in court as “TH.”
Hanson said he was on the stairs when he held TH up by his legs and told Martinez they should either surrender their baby to the state of Wyoming or “just fucking get rid of him.”
He indicated that he was threatening to throw TH down the stairs, but he quickly added, “I didn’t mean it,” Hanson told Cheyenne Police Detective James Eddy. He said he later threw away the note relinquishing his parental rights.
The incident occurred some time during the summer of 2025.
Death Ruled A Homicide
Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist who performed TH’s autopsy, testified that the cause of death was “homicide by unspecified means.”
Cina explained that he believes TH was either shaken or smothered, but the doctor couldn’t rule out whether any of the several fractures he sustained to his arms and legs contributed to his death because they had partially healed during the month he spent in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
“Most likely it was abusive head injury,” Cina said. “This kid died because of the action of another person.”
The only people caring for their son on Aug. 8, 2025, when he was taken to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center after he had an apparent seizure, were Hanson and Martinez. In addition to TH’s twin brother, the couple has an older daughter.
Cina said TH “died because his brain was dead.” The infant was diagnosed with “nonsurvivable diffuse hypoxic injury and severe cerebral edema.” TH’s brain swelled because of a lack of oxygen and blood flow, he added.
By the time his parents told doctors to shut off TH’s life support on Sept. 8, 2025, Cina said the baby’s brain “was very soft and almost falling apart.”
Cheyenne Police detectives had been gathering evidence against the couple since they received the autopsy report in March. On April 8, they pulled over the couple’s car in a planned traffic stop for being improperly registered. They then took Hanson and Martinez to the police station, where they were interviewed separately about TH’s death.
The ‘Ruse’ Technique
Hanson was interviewed for three hours that night and four hours the next day. Several portions of the interviews were played on video to the jury, and Eddy provided the context for each one. He said Hanson changed his story several times over the two days.
Eddy, by using what he called the “ruse” technique, told Hanson he had also been aggressive when dealing with his kids, which was not true. He told the suspect he was there to advocate for him because other detectives had already decided he was guilty.
The video showed Eddy telling Hanson he didn’t want to see him as “the villain in the movie,” but Martinez would use his threat to throw TH down the stairs against him and all the evidence police had gathered would convict him.
He could still come out of this “wearing a white hat with maybe a little dust on it” if he came clean and told them everything he knew about TH’s death, Eddy said.
Hanson said he suspected Martinez was responsible for TH’s seizure on Aug. 8, 2025, when he returned home from work at 11 a.m and found the baby not breathing well. He said he called his mother, who was in Sun City, Arizona, and asked her what to do.
His mother, Jessica Edgington, testified Tuesday that she told him to take a video of TH and send it to her. He filmed the baby, who was making guttural sounds and clearly breathing irregularly, and Martinez sent it to Edgington.
Edgington told them to immediately take TH to the hospital. The entire family drove there; Hanson later told a police officer that they couldn’t afford to call an ambulance. They arrived 45 minutes later.
Police, who seized both of their phones, said an examination showed Martinez spent part of that time deleting texts and internet searches for “shaken baby syndrome” and other causes of infant deaths.
Near the end of his marathon interrogation, Hanson leaned forward in his chair and said he felt sick and it was hard to eat. He said he felt "very ashamed” that he hid the fact he knew his wife was responsible for TH’s death and he didn’t report her.
He called himself “not the greatest father.”
Eddy told Hanson that he felt sorry that his son’s life had to end like this, “in a violent and tumultuous way.”
“Me too,” Hanson said in a faint, near-whisper voice.
Later, when he composed himself a bit, Hanson said TH “was the sweetest little boy.”
Will Martinez Testify?
It’s still not known whether Martinez, whose trial is scheduled after Hanson’s, will testify. Defense attorney Marty Scott received Froelicher’s permission to call her as a defense witness Monday, but the attorney said she’ll likely invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to every question.
The judge said he’s all right with Martinez testifying before her trial, but she must have her lawyer present.
Scott said he has two more witnesses to call when court reconvenes at 9 a.m. Wednesday but didn’t name them. He said Hanson will be his final witness, if he still wants to tell the jury what happened in his own words.
The 10-woman, four-man jury will likely get the case Wednesday afternoon after Scott and Laramie County Assistant District Attorney William Edelman present their closing arguments. Two alternate jurors will be dismissed.
If Hanson or Martinez are convicted of first-degree murder, either could receive life in prison.
