During the detention and preliminary hearing Wednesday for Manuel Joseph Martinez—a man accused of shooting and killing two people near Siringo Road and Camino Consuelo on Sept. 30—attorneys debated whether Martinez acted in self-defense while the family of the slain watched in tears.
Five state witnesses spoke before the court, including four Santa Fe Police Department officers on scene the night Ebony Martinez and Abraham Romo were found shot to death. A nearby resident who caught part of the incident on a home security camera also testified.
Courtesy Santa Fe Police Department
Double Homicide
Manuel Joseph Martinez (left) appeared in court Wednesday accused of the Sept. 30 murder of Ebony Faith Martinez (center) and Abraham Dominic Romo (right).
Around 11 p.m. that night, police responded to a complaint of an unhoused individual yelling from under the bridge near Siringo Road and Camino Consuelo. As they were leaving the area, officers saw a black Cadillac SUV that appeared to have left the roadway and veered into the arroyo, Officer Dominic Lopez told prosecutors. Lopez testified he saw Martinez standing near the front of the vehicle. Lopez testified that after he identified himself as an officer, the suspect attempted to flee from the scene.
“I noticed he was holding his waistband and running with one hand. Someone holding their waistband like that, they’re doing it for a reason,” Lopez said, adding a firearm later fell from Martinez during the chase.
Bodycam footage demonstrated in court showed Martinez’s clothes were covered in bloodstains, The prosecution video also revealed the suspect repeatedly telling officers “they tried to kill me” and later advised them to check the vehicle because he suspected two people could be dead.
That’s when police found the 23-year-old Martinez and 19-year-old Romo inside the SUV, slumped over and covered in blood from apparent gunshot wounds. As prosecutors prepared to show police body cam footage of the crime scene, several family members stepped out of the courtroom. When the video showed the deceased victims, some family members quietly cried. A court officer handed out tissues.
Martinez faces two first-degree murder charges, one count of tampering with evidence, and two counts of resisting and obstructing an officer.
The prosecution also showed security camera footage obtained from a nearby residence. That video included three audible gunshots as the victims’ SUV drove down Siringo and eventually swerved off into the arroyo.
Officer Jairo de Paz, who works in the SFPD investigations unit, told prosecutors he conducted a search warrant on the vehicle the following morning and discovered three spent bullet casings, a handgun holster, and one white Nike sandal that matched another located outside the vehicle in the back seat, as well as “a bloody handprint on top of the front seat headrest” on the driver’s side, a green cellphone and “vigorous amounts of blood” in the front of the SUV. The three spent bullet casings matched the Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handgun that dropped from Martinez’s waistband, the investigator testified.
De Paz attended the autopsies of both victims, and said he was told the bullet entry wounds on both victims came from the back of the head and exited through the front in a downward trajectory.
During cross-examinations, defense attorney Jennifer Burrill noted Martinez claimed the child lock was on in the back seat, and that he had attempted to kick the window out. She asked if officers had checked for that evidence. De Paz said officers discovered one of two back passenger doors did have the child lock on, and investigators photographed a footprint on a back window that matched the sandals located.
When Deputy District Attorney Kent Wahlquist asked De Paz what he believed went down based on his experience, the officer said “it doesn’t look like self-defense to me.”
“I still don’t have enough information to make that determination,” he said, “but it at least made me believe it was not self-defense because the gunshots were in the back of the victims.”
During closing arguments, Wahlquist told First Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer that based on statements from officers, footage obtained and medical examinations, the defendant’s story did not add up.
“The fact the car is moving and the victims are facing away from the defendant shows he knows what he’s doing…The fact he was running from police shows he had a consciousness of guilt,” Wahlquist said. “It indicates the defendant had his gun, something happened and he decided very quickly, ‘I’m going to shoot these two people.’”
Burrill disagreed, asking the judge for voluntary manslaughter charges “with sufficient provocation” due to the fact he claimed the two victims tried to kill him, the child lock was on for the driver’s seat back passenger door and a footprint on the window, which “indicated he tried to kick out the window while locked in the back” of the vehicle.
“There are wound marks on his body, appearing to indicate some sort of struggle,” she said.
She further contested the tampering with evidence charge, which prosecutors added due to the fact he threw clothes he took from inside the car as he ran.
“There’s no indication that’s a way of him hiding anything,” Burrill said. “I think it’s a great stretch for tampering with evidence on the clothes.”
First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer allowed prosecutors to try the first-degree murder charges and the additional three, saying evidence including statements from the defendant indicated he was aware of what he was going to do. She ultimately ordered that Martinez remain behind bars pending trial.
Martinez remained stoic as he sported a brown jumpsuit and orange shoes in the courtroom.
Martinez has a criminal history, including open charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and trafficking a controlled substance. He was arrested Sept. 22 on those charges, but released by the court on personal recognizance with conditions of release.
According to the criminal complaint on those charges, Martinez threatened a Goodwill store worker with a replica handgun. Police reported finding six baggies of cocaine which “appeared to be packaged for the intention of selling” in Martinez’s possession at the time of his arrest.
Martinez has been arrested for violence before. Last December, he was arrested for domestic abuse and in March of this year, he was charged with strangling a woman.
Both cases were dismissed without prejudice, according to court records.
