Martin Vargas interview #5

Sunday, October 31, 2021 – 2:45 p.m.

Martin Vargas is the actor representative on the Yoknapatawpha Players' board and a lead actor in the "Zombie Escape" production.

Detectives Beckwith and Magee spoke with him again at the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department.

Participants

• Detective P. Beckwith
• Detective J. Magee
• Martin Vargas

Detective Beckwith: Okay, Mr. Vargas, some blood evidence testing has returned on the club, and we have Scott Bryant's cause of death. Neither of them look particularly good for you.

Martin Vargas: How's that? I didn't kill the guy.

Detective Magee: The autopsy report indicated that Scott was killed with a blunt object that matches the description of the club you yourself said you used—the one with Scott's blood all over it.

Martin Vargas: Then it had to be used by someone else before I picked it up or after I dropped it.

Detective Magee: I find it difficult to believe that you didn't know this club wasn't a prop.

Martin Vargas: I knew it wasn't.

Detective Beckwith: Hold up. What do you mean by that?

Martin Vargas: I knew it was a real weapon in the sense that if I used it to protect myself in the zombie battle, it could easily hurt someone.

Detective Magee: How did you come to this belief?

Martin Vargas: Because of its weight and lack of flexibility.

Detective Beckwith: Why didn't you say this before?

Martin Vargas: I did. I said it was heavy.

Detective Beckwith: You said it was heavy for a prop.

Martin Vargas: Yeah, y'all were screwing up the case so bad, I didn't want to give you any more ammunition to screw it up more.

Detective Magee: By screwing up, you mean what?

Martin Vargas: Believing that I killed Scott—which I didn't. And now you know I didn't.

Detective Beckwith: You don't have any idea what we know.

Martin Vargas: Well, I know a bunch more now that y'all decided to put me in a room with Heath—and don't think for a second that I don't know y'all were listening.

Detective Magee: What makes you so confident we'll eliminate you as a suspect? We have your prints on the club that killed Scott and your recent admission that the club was very real. 

Martin Vargas: But I know that the timing isn't there, Detective Magee. You know from Heath that he dropped a wall on Scott before I ever had that club in my hands. You know that there was someone else backstage other than me and Heath, and you know that whoever that was had the opportunity to kill Scott, and I didn't.

Detective Beckwith: So you got it all figured out, Mr. Vargas. I was wondering why you aren't as agitated as you were the last time we were in here, but maybe you shouldn't be so confident. You could've had an accomplice. 

Martin Vargas: What is your problem with me, Beckwith? Damn! I didn't do this. 

Detective Beckwith: You brought up the idea of two people working in tandem to kill Scott the last time we talked.

Martin Vargas: I didn't mean me. I didn't mean I was part of a tandem!

Detective Magee: But you knew the club was a real weapon that could actually be used to kill someone.

Martin Vargas: I didn't know that until that day.

Detective Magee: But you did. You said before that you used clubs in prior rehearsals.

Martin Vargas: Yes, but the club I used that day was different. Those other ones were foam and latex. This was made out of wood or something hard.

Detective Magee: So in all the other rehearsals, you were using a prop club?

Martin Vargas: Yes. Scott told me that there would be a more detailed version of the club used during the rehearsal for the board, but it wasn't ready yet for the early rehearsals. 

Detective Beckwith: Scott told you this?

Martin Vargas: Yes.

Detective Beckwith: So there's no one to confirm this?

Martin Vargas: I don't know. Maybe Woody would know? Maybe he described this "detailed version" to someone else. Again, y'all are the detectives. Go find out.

Detective Magee: Did Scott say if he was creating the club himself?

Martin Vargas: Not to me. He just said it wasn't available.

Detective Beckwith: Okay, so if I'm to believe that someone else killed Scott, who would know the club was real or have the ability to switch a fake club with a real one just prior to you grabbing it backstage?

Martin Vargas: I don't know, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Detective Magee: Did any of the board members come to the theater that day with their own weapons?

Martin Vargas: No. I don't think they even really knew what the play was all about.

Detective Magee: How about the other actors?

Martin Vargas: Naboa, Bird, Anna, and Janet were with me, acting from the beginning of the play. Cammy, Essie, Nathan, and later Naboa were all in makeup or acting as zombies during the big battle. I don't remember any of them having a club of any kind.

Detective Beckwith: So that leaves Woody?

Martin Vargas: Well, he has been pretty nervous as of late.

Detective Magee: All right, Mr. Vargas. We'll be back.

Martin Vargas: You're not letting me go? But you know I didn't do anything.

Detective Beckwith: We don't know anything of the sort.

Interview ended – 2:59 p.m.