Montco brothers face death penalty for murder
NORRISTOWN — The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty for Gabriel Martinez-Lopez and Jose Martinez-Lopez, two brothers accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing 32-year-old Jose Armando Olarte in April.
Gabriel Martinez-Lopez, 21, was allegedly hired by the victim’s wife, Delia Hernandez-Cortes, now 28, to kill her husband. Martinez-Lopez recruited his 26-year-old brother to help him, according to court papers.
The three defendants and the victim, all Mexican nationals, were in the United States illegally.
The two men allegedly abducted Olarte from his Collingdale, Delaware County, home at gunpoint on the evening of April 8, forcing him into the back of a covered pickup truck bed, and drove him to the brothers’ residence in Upper Merion, where they smashed him repeatedly in the head with a large block, prosecutors said.
Other felonies prosecutors alleged were committed during the commission of the murder, called aggravating factors, compelled the district attorney's request for capital punishment. The aggravating circumstances include murder solicitation, robbery, kidnapping, possessing a firearm and torture.
“On top of, and in addition to, the intent to kill, both (brothers) had the intent to inflict severe pain, which is the definition of torture,” said Assistant District Attorney John Gradel, who is prosecuting the case.
Though Hernandez-Cortes and Gabriel Martinez-Lopez were first described as romantic lovers who plotted to kill her husband, Gradel said investigators determined the woman was coerced into having sex with the brother, whom she met at a Norristown restaurant where she was employed.
“This was done only for money,” he said. “There is evidence that the two — the wife and Gabriel — engaged in sexual intercourse, but it was done basically without her consent.”
When Olarte was murdered, the prosecutor said the woman was involved romantically with another man not connected to the contract killing.
“And at the time (the murder) was done, Gabriel was married to another woman, and Delia had a (different) boyfriend on the side,” he said. “So I don’t believe for one second this was done for love.”
The abuse Hernandez-Cortes reportedly suffered at the hands of her husband kept the district attorney’s office from seeking the death penalty for her.
“Her husband beat her both physically and (abused her) mentally,” Gradel said.
During the negotiation to commit murder, Hernandez-Cortes reportedly gave Gabriel Martinez-Lopez $500, and he bought a handgun in Norristown. Later, she agreed to give him the couple’s truck as payment for the killing, according to authorities.
After Olarte was abducted, the two men reportedly drove around pondering their next move. The brothers ended up at their house on Heritage Lane in King of Prussia, court records show. The victim was then ordered into the detached garage opposite the house and ordered to his knees.
As Olarte pleaded for his life, Gabriel allegedly hit the man over the head three times with one of the hefty ornamental bricks that line the property’s driveway, and when the victim fell facedown on the floor, the 26-year-old brother took the same brick and threw it at Olarte’s head.
On April 9, Upper Merion police discovered the dead man’s battered body partially concealed under a pine tree on Walker Lane in the Brandywine Village neighborhood, about a mile from the brothers’ house.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Friday at 9:30 a.m. in the courthouse.
http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/06/22/news/doc4c20b2d6f367a210302097.txt
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