US authorities say man confessed to 40 killings
Print Edition
AUTHORITIES in the United States say that a man charged with carrying out nine contract killings in Central California has confessed that he actually killed 40 people over several decades.
Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, allegedly told investigators he carried out the crimes working as an enforcer for a drug cartel, said Errek Jett, the district attorney in Lawrence County, Alabama.
Jett said they believe Martinez because of the details he gave investigators.
Martinez was arrested last year shortly after crossing from Mexico into Arizona and sent to Alabama, where he awaits trial on one murder charge.
Defense attorney Thomas Turner, who represents Martinez in that lone case, said his client is eager to start a June trial in Alabama, so he can return to California.
Turner said that Martinez maintains his innocence to the charge there and doesn’t seem to be a hardened killer.
“I’ve found him to be polite and a likable individual,” Turner said. “He has a good personality as far as talking with him.”
Prosecutors in California say otherwise. Martinez targeted victims in several counties between 1980 and 2011, said Tulare County Assistant District Attorney Anthony Fultz, who filed charges Tuesday.
Victims ranged in age from 22 to 56, investigators said.
One man was shot dead in 1980 driving to work, while two men were shot in 1982 working on a ranch, one surviving. The same year, another man went missing before being found two days later shot and stabbed to death. Yet another was found in 2000 shot to death in bed with his four children at home.
In addition to the nine murder counts, Martinez was charged in California with one count of attempted murder and the special circumstances of committing multiple murders, lying in wait and kidnapping. Four murder charges include the allegation he committed the crime for financial gain.
These charges would make Martinez eligible for a death sentence if convicted.
Martinez has lived on and off in Richgrove, California. He’s being held in Alabama, awaiting trial in a 2013 slaying. Fultz said he’s wanted in Florida on suspicion of two killings in 2006.
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