Court hearing provides clearer picture of double homicide charges
Oct. 16—A man accused of shooting and killing a young Santa Fe couple whose bodies were found in the front seats of a black Escalade earlier this month will be tried on two murder charges.
District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer on Wednesday bound 24-year-old Manuel Martinez of Santa Fe over for trial at the end of an hourslong court hearing. Her ruling means there was enough evidence at the hearing to hold Martinez to answer the charges at a trial.
The courtroom was packed with friends and family members of both the suspect and the two people he has admitted to shooting — Ebony Martinez, 23, and Abraham Romo, 19. Several of the deceased victims' family members declined to comment after the hearing.
Manuel Martinez, who attended the hearing in handcuffs and wearing a tan jumpsuit, returned to the Santa Fe County jail afterward.
Sommer ruled prosecutors had established probable cause for all three felony charges against Martinez in the incident: two counts of first-degree murder and one count of tampering with evidence.
The victims were both found shot dead in the SUV, which had run off Siringo Road and crashed in a small city park. Police believe Martinez fired at the two from the backseat while the vehicle was in motion, causing it to veer off the road. Surveillance footage collected from a resident nearby showed gunshots could be heard before the crash.
Martinez — who was discovered at the scene with a gun — has argued he acted in self-defense when he shot the couple from the back seat of the vehicle.
Investigators have not advanced any theories about a motive. They indicated Wednesday they have yet to review the victims' cellphones, which were taken from the scene. Police had not yet sent other evidence — such as clothes, blood samples and the gun — to the state's crime laboratory for testing.
Police Detective Jairo De Paz, who is heading the homicide investigation, told the court he "did not have enough information to make a determination" on whether the shooting likely occurred in self-defense, but he thought it unlikely.
"It doesn't look like self-defense to me, based on where they were shot," De Paz said, noting each of the victims was shot in the back of the head or neck. "When you're in an altercation, you're not going to fight someone with your back toward them."
Martinez's attorney, public defender Jennifer Burrill, noted officers found $180 in cash in the lap of Ebony Martinez, who was apparently driving the SUV when she was shot. Under questioning, De Paz acknowledged there was currently no indication the shootings involved robbery.
De Paz said reports from the state Office of the Medical Investigator determined Ebony Martinez appeared to have been shot twice, with entry wounds on the back of her head and neck. Romo, sitting in the front passenger seat, was shot once in the back of the neck, an autopsy showed.
Some attendees wiped away tears watching police body camera footage that captured officers first approaching the crashed SUV. The bodies of Romo and Ebony Martinez could be seen through the vehicle's wide-open doors, each slumped over in the front seats and covered in blood.
Crime scene technicians found a handgun holster in the backseat of the SUV as well as three .40-caliber shell casings, De Paz said. He added, the holster and casings appeared to be matches for a handgun officers saw fall from Martinez's waistband before he was arrested. It was the only gun found by officers anywhere at the scene.
Santa Fe police had been dispatched to the area shortly after 11 p.m. in response to an unrelated call about a man who had set up a tent under a bridge on Siringo Road.
Officer Dominic Lopez said after he had attended to that call, he noticed the headlights of a black SUV crashed in Marc Brandt Park, which sits in a small valley between the two lanes of Siringo Road. Lopez said he noticed Martinez standing next to the vehicle, and that after he called out to him, Martinez began to walk — and then jog — away.
Deputy District Attorney Kent Wahlquist noted the element of serendipity: Police officers happened to be in the neighborhood. He said the timing was "unlucky" for Martinez, who might otherwise have eluded arrest that night.
"It's lucky that they were [there], and that the other person under the bridge happened to be yelling and screaming at that moment," Wahlquist said. "It was a very quick response."
Video shows officers arresting Martinez on a sidewalk nearby, after — police testified — one of the officers had kicked away a handgun that had fallen from Martinez's waistband.
"Back away from the gun," an officer yells several times in the video, while Martinez slowly lies down on the ground.
"They tried to kill me — they shot at me, sir," Martinez says to police in another video. "I took the gun and shot them, that's what happened. ... They put the child lock on me."
Police affidavits filed in the case state Martinez declined to speak with a detective after he was arrested.
Another officer who was at the scene, however, said Martinez told him an account of the events leading up to the shooting. Patrolman Kenneth Sturmberg said Martinez "wanted to talk about his mother, and he was just upset."
"I was sitting there with him," Sturmberg said. "He was emotional, and he wanted to talk to me about his mother. He said that he was at his mother's house — cleaned the yard, did all kinds of work. His mother hated him — kicked him out of the house, told him to leave. He ended up with two individuals to go buy a gun. On the way back to the house, they passed his house, and he didn't know why. He tried to get out of the vehicle. The doors were locked, and he had to do what he had to do. And then he stopped talking."
The officer said Martinez's remarks were recorded by his body camera.
Sommer cited the remark by Martinez, "I had to do what I had to do," in her ruling. She noted the statement indicates he had "intent to kill," a part of the legal standard for first-degree murder.
Police Chief Paul Joye and Mayor Alan Webber have released statements since the shooting decrying "repeat violent offenders." Officials noted Martinez was arrested by Santa Fe officers one week before the shooting on suspicion of drug trafficking and assault, in addition to previous charges.
Sommer questioned one of the pending felony charges against Martinez — stemming from a Sept. 22 incident outside the Santa Fe Goodwill store — during a subsequent hearing Wednesday.
An employee from the thrift store told the court she called the police after Martinez threatened her with what appeared to be a handgun. Police searched Martinez and found an item that appeared to be a handgun, but Martinez told officers it was actually a lighter. Police said they also found crack cocaine in Martinez's backpack, along with multiple baggies and cash.
A police officer and the Goodwill employee said in their testimony Martinez was recognizable at the time from having lived on the streets in Santa Fe.
Wahlquist argued the handgun-shaped lighter could qualify as a "deadly weapon" because it could be used to strike or "whip," someone. The judge disagreed, and she recommended the lesser charge of misdemeanor assault.
Burrill said she plans to request a detention hearing to argue for his release after a closer review of the case, including videos, reports and other records related to the investigation recently provided by prosecutors.
