Maybe Alberto Martinez was just mean. Maybe he did not like fellow soldier Richard R. Davis. Or perhaps there was a prior incident between the two that caused Martinez to repeatedly stab Davis to death in July 2003, a state prosecutor said Tuesday.

But arguments that post traumatic stress disorder explains the grisly murder should be rejected, Assistant District Attorney Stacey Jackson, of Muscogee County, told the state Supreme Court. Jackson urged the high court Tuesday to uphold Martinez's murder conviction. He was found guilty in 2006 of killing Davis shortly after both men returned to Fort Benning from Iraq, where they had fought side by side.

Columbus Police Department (ENLARGE)

Alberto Martinez's lawyer is seeking a new trial because the jury never heard evidence that the former soldier suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

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A day after returning home, Davis, 24, went out drinking with four of his colleagues from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which helped spearhead the Iraqi invasion.

After Davis insulted a dancer at a strip club, the soldiers were kicked out and a fight ensued among some of them in the parking lot, according to testimony.

They soon got in Martinez's car and drove off. About 20 miles later, Martinez pulled over and ordered Davis to get out in a dark, wooded area. More punches were thrown before Martinez walked up and stabbed Davis in the side. Even though his colleagues pleaded for him to stop, Martinez then stabbed Davis again and again, at least 33 times in all.

Martinez and the other soldiers tried to cover up the murder, including returning to the scene a few days later to try to bury Davis' remains farther from the roadway.

Martinez's lawyer, David West of Marietta, is asking the court to grant Martinez, 27, a new trial because the jury never heard evidence that the former soldier suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

West said there is evidence to show Martinez was triggered by the fighting between Davis and his colleagues and went into a dissociative state, killing Davis because he found him to be a threat.

"Maybe it was a sensory impulse that overmastered his will, whether it was rational or not, right or wrong," West told the justices, who are expected to decide the case later this year.

Noting there was overwhelming evidence that Martinez was the killer, West questioned the trial lawyers' strategy to discredit the testimony of another soldier, Jacob Burgoyne. Burgoyne, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, testified for the prosecution.

Jackson, who prosecuted the case against the soldiers, agreed the evidence against Martinez was strong. As for an insanity defense that PTSD caused the slaying, he said, "The facts and the law just don't fit."

Martinez had previously shown his knife to his fellow soldiers and was trying to find a secluded place where he could commit the murder, Jackson told the court. After he stabbed Davis the first time, Martinez rejected the pleas of his colleagues to stop, and, over the next few days, covered up the crime, the prosecutor said.

"These were the actions of someone with a plan to attack," Jackson told the court. "Sometimes the state just has a decent case. Here, there was overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt."