Alcalde man gets 26-year sentence for raping and killing his mother

Jun. 20—An Alcalde man has received the maximum sentence possible — one day shy of 26 1/2 years in prison — for the rape and fatal beating of his mother.

State District Judge Jason Lidyard sentenced Erick Dwayne Martinez, 46, on Thursday for crimes related to the 2021 death of his mother, 74-year-old Cora Martinez. A jury in February found Martinez guilty of second-degree murder, two counts of criminal sexual penetration, tampering with evidence, unlawful taking of motor vehicle and resisting arrest.

A motion by prosecutors, if granted, could add five more years to Martinez's sentence because of his status as a habitual offender.

The state's willingness to bring the full weight of the law against Martinez comes years too late for his mother; court records show he was accused of inflicting violence on her for decades before he took her life.

Martinez was in violation of a restraining order prohibiting him from having contact with his mother when he went to her home in Española on Aug. 1, 2021, and killed her in the presence of his own 5-year-old son, according to court records.

He argued with his mother after she refused to give him money or loan him her car, an arrest warrant affidavit says.

"Then [he] proceeded to beat his mother to death in front of his young son," the state's sentencing memo says. "Allegedly, in an attempt to wake her up, the defendant threw water on his beaten, bruised, and deceased mother. He also changed her clothes, cleaned up broken items and placed other items in the closet in an attempt to clean the scene of the homicide."

Cora Martinez's twin sister, who is blind, would later tell police she was in an adjacent room and heard her sister screaming. She believed Erick Martinez was beating her sister and said "she covered her ears and began to pray."

Around 5 p.m. the next day, a family member called 911 to report she'd arrived at the Española home, where the sisters lived with Erick Martinez's son, and found Cora Martinez dead in her bed.

Her 4-foot-11, 90-pound body was badly bruised. She had numerous injuries to her head, chest, extremities and genitals, according to the state's sentencing memo.

An autopsy determined her cause of death was head trauma and strangulation. A sexual assault exam determined she'd also been raped.

Police later spotted Erick Martinez driving his mother's car and arrested him after a brief chase.

He told police he'd gotten into a pushing match with his mother, and he'd pushed her "and in the same motion, his hands hit Cora causing two bruised eyes."

He didn't want to hurt his mother, he told police, calling the incident an accident, according to an affidavit.

His mother had gone to sleep, and he left, he said. When he returned around 4 a.m. the next morning, he said, he found his mother deceased in bed with blue lips.

He wasn't supposed to be there and had a warrant out for his arrest, he said, so he told his mother's sister to call police and then left.

Martinez had a long history of violence against women, Deputy District Attorney Anthony Long told the court Thursday. He'd been arrested on domestic violence-related charges more than a dozen times in the past 20 years. In every instance, the person he was accused of harming was a woman.

Martinez's mother was listed as a victim in five of the cases, according to a sentencing memo. The mother of his son was listed as the victim in six others.

Despite several attempts by prosecutors to have him held without bond, his repeated failure to appear in court, and violations of the conditions of his release or probation, Martinez was repeatedly released back into the community.

"The fact that his hatred and repeated violence towards women culminated in the brutal rape and murder of the defendant's mother, by the defendant, should come as no surprise to anyone," Long wrote in the sentencing memo.

A family member read several letters to the court during Martinez's sentencing hearing, including one from the deceased woman's daughter, Crystal Trujillo. Erick Martinez had been a menace to the family for years due to his poor choices and addictions that "fueled his uncontrollable anger issues," she wrote.

"Erick has had a history of being very violent and physically abusive without any remorse to those he has hurt," Trujillo wrote.

"He continuously ignored restraining orders and was not afraid of law enforcement because he was never held accountable," she wrote, adding that 911 dispatch had been called about him more than 100 times. "Law enforcement was very familiar with Erick because each time Erick was arrested and charged, leniency had been granted to him by the court," she wrote.

She wrote, "The system clearly failed our family, but more importantly, has failed my mother."

Erick Martinez's defense attorney asked the court to sentence him to 10 years in prison, citing his relatively low IQ — about 80, compared to an average of about 100 — and his desire to rehabilitate himself.

Martinez continued to deny he raped and beat his mother Thursday. He said in a disjointed statement to the court the evidence had been "tampered with."

"If I bumped into my mom, if she fell, if she died, I did it," he said. "But whatever happened to my mother after that point, I have no accountability for that."

He added, "Whoever did it should be accountable for it."