Detective convinced unknown man killed Victoria Martens

Jul. 27—A retired police detective who spent more than a year investigating nothing but 10-year-old Victoria Martens' death said he firmly believes that an unknown man killed the child.

"You'd have to just ignore all the physical evidence," retired Albuquerque police detective Rich Lewis said on the witness stand Tuesday. "And I've learned over the years, follow your evidence."

Lewis spent hours on the witness stand Monday and most of the day Tuesday in the trial against Fabian Gonzales, who is charged with child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12, seven counts of tampering with evidence and conspiracy to tamper with evidence.

Parts of testimony Tuesday centered around an unknown man. Prosecutors in 2018 indicted a male DNA profile — called John Doe — in connection with the death of Victoria on Aug. 23, 2016. At that time they also dropped murder and rape charges against Gonzales and Michelle Martens, Victoria's mother.

Gonzales' attorneys are arguing that Jessica Kelley, Gonzales' cousin, acted alone in killing Victoria and attempting to cover up the crime. Kelley, 37, pleaded guilty to several charges and was sentenced to 44 years in prison, but she will be eligible for parole in half that time.

The District Attorney's Office has alleged an unknown man killed Victoria, possibly over a vendetta he had against Gonzales, and that Gonzales was part of the effort to clean up the crime.

Gonzales is facing 18 to 43 1/2 years in prison if convicted of all charges, based on New Mexico laws and sentencing guidelines.

A jury was seated July 13 in 2nd Judicial District Court and Judge Cindy Leos is presiding.

Throughout much of the testimony, officers and detectives involved have described the case as confusing and strange, not to mention brutal. And even though Gonzales' trial is well underway, Lewis said Tuesday that he remains unclear exactly what happened to Victoria the night she was killed in a Northwest Albuquerque apartment.

"As I sit here today, there is still a variety of possibilities," he said.

What evidence makes Lewis think another man was involved?

For one, Lewis said the DNA profile of an unknown male was found on Victoria and on several items inside the apartment, including on cleaning supplies. He said Kelley made some statements to officers at the time of her arrest about another man being present in the apartment. Additionally, Lewis said when officers served a search warrant on Kelley after Victoria's death, she told them something about there being four adults in the apartment the night Victoria was killed.

Investigators later determined that Martens and Gonzales were not at Martens' apartment when Victoria was killed.

But they returned at 8:48 p.m. Aug. 23, 2016, after Victoria was dead. And they were at the apartment at around 4:30 a.m. the next day when police were called there on a reported battery or assault and found Victoria partially dismembered and set on fire in a bathtub.

Lewis and others have said there must have been a massive effort to cover up the crime scene.

"There was not that much blood for the amount of injury that I was seeing," said Dr. Rebecca Asch-Kendrick, a forensic pathologist who responded to the scene and was part of the team that performed the autopsy.

Asch-Kendrick also testified Tuesday. She guided jurors through an account of all of Victoria's injuries as horrific head-to-toe pictures of Victoria's body were displayed in court.

Lewis said he believes such an effort, both the dismemberment and cleanup, would have taken hours. He said he also thinks items and evidence were removed from the apartment.

That was one of the reasons why the case has been so difficult for investigators to wrap their heads around, he said.

"That has scuttled the investigation," he said. "I know Michelle Martens and the defendant were not there (when Victoria was killed). I know I wasn't there. Other than that, it's an open investigation."

Another reason the case has been difficult to solve is that officers relied on untrue statements that Martens made during her initial interrogation by police. Detectives then used those statement to put pressure on Gonzales during his more than 12-hour interrogation.

Lewis, a cold-case detective who joined the case a year after Victoria's death, said the techniques police used in their initial interviews with Martens and Gonzales were legal and taught to police during their training. But he had stopped using such tactics.

"I have used them in the past but stopped before I retired," he said.

Asked about criticisms police detectives have received over those interviews, Lewis said that he always welcomes criticism that is constructive.

"I think it's fair," he said of criticizing police for the investigation into Victoria's death.