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Thread: Fabian Gonzales and Jessica Kelley Sentenced in 2016 Slaying of 10-Year-Old Victoria Martens

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    Fabian Gonzales and Jessica Kelley Sentenced in 2016 Slaying of 10-Year-Old Victoria Martens


    Victoria Martens, 10


    Fabian Gonzales, Michelle Martens
    and Jessica Kelley


    Criminal complaint details brutal slaying of New Mexico girl

    Fox News

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – On the day a girl was going to celebrate her 10th birthday, she was found dead in her family's apartment by Albuquerque police officers, her dismembered remains wrapped in a burning blanket.

    Details of what Gov. Susana Martinez and law enforcement officials described as an unspeakable crime emerged Thursday in a criminal complaint made public and filed against the girl's mother, her boyfriend and his cousin. The three were taken into custody late Wednesday night.

    Police say the girl was injected with methamphetamine, sexually assaulted, strangled and stabbed before being dismembered. They did not identify her because authorities were still trying Thursday to reach some relatives to notify them of the girl's death.

    A caller told a police dispatcher before dawn Wednesday that there was a disturbance in the apartment, said Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden. Officers who went to the apartment complex in a middle-class neighborhood found the gruesome crime scene.

    "This is a horrific tragedy for our community," Eden told reporters. "I want to assure the public that we will pursue justice and we will make sure that we exhaust every resource into this investigation."

    By Thursday morning, a makeshift shrine for the girl had emerged underneath a tree at the apartment complex — with relatives and friends leaving flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and lit candles.

    Martinez said in a statement the abuse and killing of the girl "is unspeakable and justice should come down like a hammer."

    The girl's mother, 35-year-old Michelle Marten, her 31-year-old boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, and his 31-year-old cousin, Jessica Kelley, face charges of child abuse resulting in death, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. Gonzales and Kelly have also been charged with criminal sexual penetration of a minor.

    Gonzales denied having anything to do with the girl's death as he was led out of the police station in handcuffs late Wednesday as reporters yelled questions at him. The girl's mother said nothing as she was led out and placed into the back of a police car.

    Police said Kelley was hospitalized late Wednesday and will be booked after she is released. No details were disclosed about why she was hospitalized.

    According to the criminal complaint, the mother told police Gonzales drugged the girl so he could calm her down and have sex with her. She said Kelley held her hand over the child's mouth and she stabbed the girl in the stomach after Gonzales had choked her.

    The complaint also states that the mother told investigators that Gonzales and Kelley dismembered the girl.

    One of the police officers who arrived at the apartment found the girl's body in a bathroom, rolled up in a blanket that had been set on fire. The officer put it out.

    Gonzales has an arrest record stretching back to 2004, including a felony child abuse charge, driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. It was unclear whether he was convicted of most charges, but he did plead no contest to a charge of child abandonment.

    Kelley's arrest record includes battery, domestic violence and drug charges — most of them dismissed. Online court records show no criminal history in New Mexico for Martens.

    Mug shots of Martens and Gonzales released by police showed them with bruises on their faces. In his statement in the criminal complaint, Gonzales said his cousin hit him and Martens with an iron.

    Laura Bobbs, a local minister, told the Albuquerque Journal she was planning the girl's birthday celebration for when the child was supposed to arrive home from school Wednesday afternoon. They were going to have pedicures and manicures and eat cake.

    Bobbs broke down sobbing and yelling Wednesday outside the apartment complex as detectives investigated.

    "Who does this to a little child?" she asked. "Oh Jesus. Oh what evil."

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/08/25...r+Content%2529
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Grisly killing of 10-year-old set to stoke debate over death penalty

    By Andrew Oxford
    The New Mexican

    The grisly killing of a 10-year-old Albuquerque girl is sure to intensify debate over whether New Mexico should reinstate the death penalty, a subject that in the past week has tussled with the sagging economy as the state’s pre-eminent political issue leading into next year’s legislative session.

    Emerging details of Victoria Martens’ death, including allegations that she was drugged, raped and dismembered on the same day she planned to celebrate her birthday, have sent shock waves through the state. Three adults, including the girl’s mother, have been charged in connection with the case.

    The murder comes just one week after Republican Gov. Susana Martinez called for the return of capital punishment in cases involving the murder of children or law enforcement officers.

    Martinez did not mention the death penalty in a statement Thursday about the girl’s murder but said: “Justice should come down like a hammer on the monster who committed this murder.”

    Last week, a spokesman for Martinez said “the governor supports reinstating the death penalty and, at minimum, we can all agree that it should apply to cop killers and child murderers.”

    Those comments came after a police officer in Hatch was shot dead. A fugitive wanted for murder in Ohio faces state and federal charges in the case.

    The New Mexico Legislature and then-Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, abolished capital punishment in 2009.

    Martinez, a Republican who was a longtime district attorney before being elected governor in 2010, has renewed her own years-old proposal to return the death penalty to New Mexico. She raised the topic in her first State of the State speech in 2011 but never pushed the idea until recently.

    A spokesman for the governor on Thursday would not say whether Martinez would amplify her call for reviving the death penalty based on Victoria’s case.

    The horror elicited by the elementary school student’s death paralleled the shock following the shooting death of 4-year-old Iliana “Lilly” Rose Garcia in a road rage case in October.

    Lilly’s death and the shooting deaths of two police officers in the Albuquerque metropolitan area led Republican state representatives to introduce a host of bills aimed to crack down on violent crime. In the 30-day legislative session that followed, crime-and-punishment measures dominated debate much of the time, even though the “short” session was supposed to focus mostly on the state budget.

    Now, with the state’s cash reserves depleted and legislators planning to return to the Capitol in September for a special session to balance the budget, and with a 60-day legislative session scheduled to begin in mid-January, the return of capital punishment and other crime measures could once again dominate debate in the Roundhouse.

    Critics of the governor’s focus on crime while the state’s budget is in disarray expressed a combination of horror at Victoria’s death and the prospect of the case becoming part of the argument for reinstating capital punishment.

    “It’s a terrible tragedy that I believe was easily preventable had this state invested in a comprehensive early childhood education and child welfare system,” said Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque. “I believe the fullest extent of the law should come down on the monsters that did this, but I think discussions of the death penalty are distractions.”

    Rep. Martinez and the governor are not related and agree on little in terms of public policy.

    Even before state legislators abolished the death penalty in 2009, New Mexico had used it sparingly.

    The only person executed in the state after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 was convicted of a crime similar to Victoria’s case.

    Terry D. Clark kidnapped, raped and murdered a 9-year-old Roswell girl in 1986. Clark dropped his appeals in 1999 and was executed by lethal injection in 2001.

    Two convicted murderers in New Mexico still could be put to death because they committed their crimes before legislators repealed capital punishment. One kidnapped and murdered a 17-year-old Flora Vista girl in 1995. The other committed multiple murders.

    After New Mexico outlawed the death penalty, Illinois, Connecticut Maryland and Nebraska followed suit. Thirty states, the federal government and the U.S. military still have the death penalty. Several states, though, rarely execute prisoners.

    Reinstating capital punishment would be an unusual step as other states move away from it, and the process of carrying out executions is complicated by difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

    Rep. Martinez said the state, with a budget crisis likely to lead to cutbacks that will fall on the backs of children and the poor, will see yet more tragedies.

    Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he anticipates the murder of Victoria will be used in the debate over capital punishment.

    “Our hearts are broken. And as humans, our instincts are to protect,” he said. “But this is why you create laws — to govern us and help us through the difficult times that are emotional.”

    The emotions that arise during such times are important, Sanchez said. “Let’s hope that this tragedy is not used for politics but good work,” he said.

    An opposing view comes from Rep. Andy Nuñez, R-Hatch, who says New Mexico needs to bring back the death penalty. Nuñez voted to repeal the death penalty in 2009 when he was a Democrat. Now, he says, he will carry the legislation to reinstate capital punishment if Gov. Martinez asks him to do so.

    http://www.santafenewmexican.com/new...622e5ea29.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    3RD SUSPECT HELD AFTER GIRL INJECTED WITH METH, RAPED, KILLED

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The third suspect in the horrific rape and killing of a 10-year-old Albuquerque girl whose body was dismembered made her first court appearance Saturday.

    Jessica Kelley, who was seated in a wheelchair, remained silent as she listened from jail via a video feed as a judge read the charges she faces in the killing of Victoria Martens.

    Judge Chris Schultz ordered the 31-year-old held on $1 million bond for multiple counts, including child abuse resulting in death, kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration of a minor. Schultz said the incident demonstrated a level of depravity that was "unfathomable."

    "I've been involved in the criminal law for over 30 years and this is the most inhumane case I think I've come across," Schultz said.

    It was not immediately clear if Kelley had hired an attorney or one had been assigned to her.

    Authorities say Victoria was injected with methamphetamine, raped and strangled before her dismembered body was found in a bathtub Wednesday, on what was her 10th birthday.

    Police also arrested the girl's mother, Michelle Martens, 35, and her boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, 31. Both also were ordered held on $1 million bond on similar charges.

    Kelley, who is Gonzales' cousin, was the last to appear in court. She had been hospitalized for a broken leg, which she suffered while trying to flee police.

    Court records indicate Kelley had a prior conviction on a felony rape charge. The Albuquerque Journal reported that Kelley acted as a lookout while a woman allegedly raped another inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in September 2012.

    She pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit criminal sexual penetration and was sentenced to three years in prison minus nearly a year for time served.

    Child welfare officials say Victoria was not known to them as a victim of previous violent abuse. But officials acknowledged Friday that Gonzales was not being monitored by probation officers or tested for drugs as mandated by a judge last year.

    In that case, Fabian Gonzales was arrested for beating another woman in a car with a baby inside it while the woman was driving and ended up pleading no contest to two misdemeanor crimes that kept him out of jail. Corrections department officials said Friday they never got the judge's order for him to be supervised by probation officers.

    While the girl's mother has no online record of an arrest in New Mexico, she told police Kelley had been released from jail just days before Victoria's death.

    The brutal details of Victoria's death have shocked New Mexico public officials and residents. The city of Albuquerque is holding a memorial that is being billed as a birthday party for Victoria on Sunday. The mayor will speak and the city is providing free shuttles to the park hosting the event.

    http://abc7.com/news/3rd-suspect-hel...illed/1488600/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Thousands celebrate birthday of Victoria Martens

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The community continues to try and make sense of the brutal killing of a 10-year-old Albuquerque girl. In the meantime, donations for her little brother continue to pour in.

    Thousands of people gathered Sunday at a northwest Albuquerque park to give Victoria Martens the big birthday celebration she would have wanted.

    “It’s amazing,” said Michelle Banks, a resident of Arroyo Villas Apartments where Victoria lived. “It’s just great out here to have so many people come together when there’s so much bad going on in the world that there is good people out here and that we’re here to celebrate Victoria and her life.”

    Many community members at Mariposa Park wore purple, Victoria’s favorite color, and celebrated with cake to honor her memory.

    The night ended with a candlelight vigil, where people sang “Happy Birthday.”

    Victoria liked princesses and the movie, “Frozen,” so even those characters made it out to the celebration to take pictures with the kids.

    A table was set up for children to decorate cards to send to Victoria’s family, her classmates at Petroglyph Elementary School and first responders.

    Guests also brought stuffed animals to be donated to Victoria’s classmates at Petroglyph Elementary.

    Victoria’s mom, her mom’s boyfriend and his cousin are all charged in the killing.

    Despite the disturbing circumstances surrounding Victoria’s death, people wanted Sunday to be all about celebrating her life.

    The event was large enough that the city organized a park and ride service for people to attend.

    The support for little Victoria isn’t only being felt in the Albuquerque metro. People living in Las Cruces also celebrated the girl’s birthday Sunday night. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports balloons were released at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, followed by a candlelight vigil.

    Victoria’s grandmother has also set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds towards her little brother’s college education. It’s raised just over $13,000.

    http://krqe.com/2016/08/28/thousands...toria-martens/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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    Victoria’s nightmare began before fatal night

    By Nicole Perez, Robert Browman and Elise Kaplan
    The Albuquerque Journal

    The violent sexual attack that ended Victoria Martens’ life apparently was not the first time she was raped.

    The 10-year-old’s mother, Michelle Martens, told police she had allowed other men to sexually assault her daughter and said she had sought out the men online and at work. She told police she had set up encounters with at least three.

    One of them was a co-worker. Two others she met online, including Fabian Gonzales, 31. He was to be the last.

    That’s because Gonzales is accused, along with Martens and Gonzales’ cousin, Jessica Kelley, of killing and dismembering the little girl in one of the most gruesome crimes in Albuquerque history.

    Martens, 35, told police she didn’t do it for the money. She set up the sexual assaults because she enjoyed watching.

    Martens’ statement to police is included in nearly a dozen search warrants obtained by the Journal. Investigators sought DNA evidence from the suspects, as well as multiple electronic devices and a camcorder they believed may have been used for sexual exploitation of children.

    The documents offer a more complete picture of the late-night and early-morning hours when Victoria was reportedly killed and provide a glimpse into Martens’ alleged repeated abuse of her children. The Journal chose not to include some of the most disturbing details from the documents.

    Martens told police she used the dating website Plenty of Fish to look for men to have sex with Victoria and possibly Victoria’s younger sibling, according to the records.

    “Michelle said ‘yeah’ when asked if she would agree with them over the internet or over the phone that they would come over and have sex with her children,” an investigator wrote in one of the documents.

    It’s unclear how long she’d been arranging meetings before Victoria was killed or if police have identified any of those men.

    Officer Tanner Tixier, a spokesman with the Albuquerque Police Department, said investigators are working with federal agencies to determine whether Martens or anyone else will face federal charges for alleged online activity.

    He said he doesn’t know whom police have interviewed and said if other arrests are made, it could take awhile.

    “This will be a very thorough, long investigation,” he said.

    The timeline of events that led to the girl’s killing is unclear, but neighbors saw and heard portions of it.

    Around 10 p.m. the night of Aug. 23, multiple people reported seeing one of the accused, Kelley, 31, carrying Victoria in her arms down the stairs from an apartment.

    It’s unclear if the girl was alive or dead.

    “Are you ready?” a neighbor overheard Kelley ask Martens.

    Around 3 a.m. the next morning, the same witness heard screaming coming from the apartment.

    Martens told officers the group gave Victoria methamphetamine orally for her to swallow.

    Martens said she believes the methamphetamine was what killed Victoria, though police disagree.

    Tixier said police believe she died later from strangulation or stab wounds.

    Martens said she watched Kelley hold Victoria down while Gonzales raped and strangled her. Kelley then stabbed her, and she and Gonzales dismembered her body and set her on fire in the bathtub, according to the court records.

    Witnesses said that around 4:30 a.m., Martens and Gonzales went to neighbors and said they had been attacked by Kelley. Martens said her daughter was still in the apartment. Neighbors called police, who found the grisly scene.

    Investigators are looking into whether Martens ever videotaped or photographed the sexual assaults. They seized a camcorder and nine minidiscs, five smartphones, a thumb drive, iPod, cellphone, tablet and Kindle.

    “In my training and experience, those who are interested in the sexual exploitation of children are also interested in exploiting images of children for sexual gratification,” an officer wrote in one of the search warrant affidavits.

    Investigators are looking at the phones to see with whom Martens communicated prior to her daughter’s death.

    Tixier said he didn’t know what investigators found on the devices.

    No incidents of physical or sexual abuse were ever reported to the Children, Youth and Families Department, according to a spokesman.

    Through his attorney, the father of Martens’ other child said he had no knowledge of Martens’ alleged actions involving her children.

    He is seeking orders of protection against all three suspects to protect his child if they are released.

    “The petitions he filed are based on the evidence released about Victoria’s murder as well as information his son has disclosed to him since the murder,” said attorney Michelle Cortez in an emailed statement. He “is both saddened and sickened by the events that have occurred, and he will do what he needs to do to protect his son.”

    At the time the warrants were issued, investigators had not found the weapon used to dismember Victoria, according to the records.

    Two days after Victoria was killed, her grandparents told a detective they visited the apartment and found a gallon-size bag with a white, powdery substance that appeared to be a “narcotic of some type” in the apartment.

    They also found a safe.

    Police have said they could not determine whether the suspects were high on drugs during the rape and killing.

    All three suspects are charged with kidnapping, child abuse resulting in death, tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Kelley and Gonzales are also charged with criminal sexual penetration of a minor.

    https://www.abqjournal.com/844611/vi...tal-night.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    This is an absolutely appalling case. Its a travesty that the two deviants and her "mother", if you can even call her that, can't be sentenced to death. I hope they catch those other sickos that violated this defenseless kid.

    This woman had no business breeding or raising children. We require people to have licenses for driving, hunting, holding many jobs, etc. but anybody is allowed to undertake the tremendous responsibility of raising children. People with biological children should have to meet the same standards as adoptive parents.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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    Agree so hard... I just don't get people anymore.
    I can't process this sorta stuff in my mind no matter how hard I try... I'm not really sure I want to know the answers to why anymore.

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    WATCH: Fabian Gonzales attacked in jail by fellow inmate

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gonzales is accused of sexually assaulting and viciously killing 10-year-old Victoria Martens in August 2016.

    http://www.koat.com/article/video-fa...inmate/9568386

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    Mother of Victoria Martens takes plea deal; unidentified 4th suspect still at large

    krqe.com

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - The mother of Victoria Martens took a plea deal Friday, resulting in most of the charges against her being dropped.

    The District Attorney Raul Torrez also revealed that another man, who is still out there, could be involved in Victoria's murder, and most of what we thought we knew about this case may not be true.

    Friday, Michelle Martens appeared before Judge Charles Brown. It was then announced she had reached a deal that would cut her sentence from possible life to as little as 12 years.

    Martens pled guilty to just one of the 19 charges she faced – reckless child abuse resulting in death.

    Both prosecutors and Martens' attorney agreed her only crime was allowing her boyfriend's cousin, Jessica Kelley – a convicted rapist and drug dealer – to watch over Victoria.

    Prosecutors laid out evidence saying back in August 2016, Martens knew Kelley had just gotten out of prison and had a violent past.

    "She was warned that se should remove Kelley from her home due to her unstable behavior," prosecutors said.

    Instead, the state says Martens continued to let Kelley stay at her apartment, and even asked Kelley to pick up Victoria from the bus stop after school on August 23, 2016.

    Prosecutors say Martens got hom hours later and saw Kelley was high on meth, but again left her daughter with Kelley so she and Fabian Gonzales could go get marijuana.

    It was during that window, prosecutors say Kelley and at least one other unknown person raped and strangled Victoria.

    "Martens observed Kelley carrying Victoria down the apartment stairs unresponsive and wrapped in a blanket," prosecutors said.

    Yet, the state says the mother still failed to check on her daughter, who was dismembered later that night.

    Nearly two years ago, the idea that Martens watched it all happen came from her interview with police, which both sides now say just wasn't true.

    "[Martens] has spent her life saying things to please people so if you ask her something, she's going to respond in the way she thinks that you like. It's always a difficult task when we deal with people of her IQ level," defense attorney Gary Mitchell said.

    As part of the plea deal, Michelle Martens agreed that she will testify in the trials of Fabian Gonzales and Jessica Kelley. She faces between 12-15 years in prison. The charge she pled to carries up to 18 years.

    "I recognize that these revelations are not consistent with the public's perception about what happened with Victoria, but I want to share this information with you in order to help the community understand," DA Raul Torrez said.

    DA reveals major twist in case

    After that plea deal with Michelle Martens was announced, District Attorney Raul Torrez held a news conference to explain the decision and he dropped a bombshell: They believe there was another man there when Victoria was killed.

    "There is no physical evidence linking Fabian Gonzales to that specific crime and no independent forensic evidence that Michelle Martens knowingly permitted her daughter to be sexually assaulted on that day or at any other time," Torrez said.

    Torrez said he had a team review the case over the past year or so, with prosecutors, APD detectives and new experts. They found there's no evidence Martens and Gonzales were home when Victoria was raped and murdered in the early evening of August 23, 2016 as investigators initially thought.

    Torrez said they still believe Martens and Gonzales are guilty of child abuse for leaving Victoria in the care of Jessica Kelley, a convicted rapist and drug dealer.

    Torrez then announced a huge twist in the case – tests showed it was not Fabian Gonzales' DNA on Victoria's body, rather the DNA belongs to an unidentified man.

    This "John Doe" is now facing 14 charges, including rape and first degree murder.

    "Given the specific location of the unknown male DNA on her body we have determined that at least one unidentified man was involved in this crime and never apprehended," Torrez said.

    Torrez announced that many of Gonzales' charges have also been dropped, including murder and rape. He's still looking at reckless child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence, and up to 18 years behind bars.

    Investigators still believe Gonzales tried to clean up the murder scene and helped dismember Victoria's body to dispose of it.

    Torrez did not say if they have a plea deal in the works with Fabian Gonzales. His trial is set for mid-October.

    The DA essentially said there were major holes and mistakes in the case APD handed his office. After the DA's news conference, APD released the following statement:

    This is one of the most horrific crimes our community has faced. APD has devoted some of our most experienced detectives to the investigation and they have been instrumental this year in unraveling the misleading statements Michelle Martens made initially. Our department is working closely with the District Attorney and our federal partners on the investigation to ensure it results in true justice on behalf of Victoria Martens. If you have any information, call Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP.

    – Gilbert Gallegos, Director of Communications

    At this point, Kelley is still facing all 23 counts against her. Gonzales and Martens have always pointed the finger at her.

    Kelley's trial is scheduled for January.

    https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/moth...val/1274041779

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    Gang ties take center stage during latest hearing in Victoria Martens case

    By Kai Porter
    kob.com

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – One of the suspects implicated in the murder of young Victoria Martens was in court Friday afternoon, a week after prosecutors released documents detailing a new timeline of the days leading up to the night she was killed.

    Judge Charles Brown also made some big decisions on what will be allowed to be used as evidence when the trial of Fabian Gonzales begins in October.

    According to the new court documents, a gang member looking for Gonzales could be the one who killed the little girl in 2016.

    Gonzales is being charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence. On Friday, his alleged gang ties took center stage, as prosecutors and defense attorneys sparred over what evidence the jury will be able to hear during the trial.

    One of the main arguments was whether the jury should be allowed to hear testimony related to the suspect's gang ties. Prosecutors said Gonzales made threats against a rival gang member after a woman punched him in the face during a barbecue.

    Jessica Kelly, originally the prime suspect in Victoria's killing, claimed just last week that a still-unidentified man entered their apartment, killed Victoria, then told her the murder was Gonzales's fault.

    Prosecutors want to put two gang experts on the stand, but the defense argued that would be unfair.

    "For a jury to remain objective when the state wants to really just have a spaghetti prosecution…they're throwing everything at the wall and hoping some of it sticks," Gonzales's attorney told Judge Charles Brown in court. "Even if it doesn't, the jury might convict because, well, he's a gang member, and we'll just flush him down the toilet."

    Brown didn't make a decision on Friday, instead saying he wants to have a hearing to see if the expert witnesses would be relevant. However, to the dismay of the defense, he did say a jury will be allowed to see one lapel camera video from Albuquerque Police officers who initially found Victoria's burning body in a bathtub.

    "I'm hesitant because, clearly, any of the physical damage done to the child can be shown through the testimony of the Office of the Medical Investigator," Brown said.

    Victoria's mom, Michelle Martens, will testify against Gonzales as part of a plea deal. A judge recently rejected a similar plea deal for Kelly.

    https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news...-case/5080154/

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