Investigative reporter Connor Sheets joins Metro; Christian Martinez and Nathan Solis to start on L.A. Now

The following announcement was sent on behalf of deputy managing editor Shelby Grad:

Please join me in formally welcoming Metro staffer Connor Sheets, who started last month, and Christian Martinez and Nathan Solis, who will be joining the L.A. Now team Monday.

Sheets has jumped right in as an investigative and enterprise reporter in Metro, joining his colleagues in coverage of the recent oil spill. Before coming to The Times, he was an investigative reporter in Alabama, where his work was honored by numerous national journalism contests. His reporting on Alabama sheriffs and jails won a Sidney Award and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, and he was a finalist for the Selden Ring, Goldsmith, Livingston, Tom Renner, Michael Kelly and Worth Bingham prizes and awards. A father of two, Sheets grew up in Maryland, where he delivered newspapers as a teenager.

Martinez is joining Metro as a temporary L.A. Now reporter in a new swing-shift role. He has extensive experience in breaking news, including coverage of the Borderline mass shooting and the Woolsey and Thomas fires for the Ventura County Star. More recently, he was a business reporter for the Lansing State Journal, where he covered the COVID-19 pandemic, marijuana and other topics. His work appeared in USA Today and other Gannett properties. Martinez is a true multimedia journalist who regularly shoots video when out in the field and has experience working for KTVU-TV in the Bay Area. He is a native of Southern California.

Solis is also joining Metro as a temporary L.A. Now reporter on the morning desk. He comes to us from Courthouse News Service and has become an expert in navigating legal documents and mastering Southern California's maze of courthouses. At that publication, he wrote both breaking news and enterprise stories ranging from criminal justice to homelessness and politics. Before that, Solis was at the Redding Record Searchlight as a multimedia journalist, where he anchored coverage of the destructive 2017 fires in Northern California. Earlier in his career, he worked for Eastsider L.A., the groundbreaking local news website.