St. Paul woman advertising sexual services online set man up to be robbed, murder charge says

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
Updated ·3 min read
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Investigators believe a woman set up a man to be robbed at his St. Paul home and then served as a lookout in the area, according to a murder charge filed Friday.

Andrew Gutzman, 37, was found fatally shot in his South Como home on Hatch Avenue near Chatsworth Street the morning of July 5.

Investigators reviewed Gutzman’s cellphone records and saw he received phone calls at 12:26 a.m., 12:54 a.m. and 12:58 a.m. on July 5 from a number associated with a woman, Sabrina Anne Martens, 27, of St. Paul.

They determined that Martens advertised sexual services online and a phone number in the ad was the same one that Gutzman used to communicate with her on July 5, the criminal complaint said. Photos associated with the ad matched Martens.

Police had a search warrant for Martens’ phone and, after seeing a six-digit number tattooed on her neck, found that number was the passcode for her phone, the complaint said.

On Marten’s cell phone, investigators found a text conversation with another person between 1:15 a.m. and 1:42 a.m. on July 5. Martens texted, “His whole house is empty. He’s moving.”

Soon after, Martens sent a text saying, he has “a lot of meth. I can run with that. But idk (I don’t know) about the weed,” the complaint continued.

At 1:32 a.m., Martens told the person she was texting with, “Start walking to the door he getting in the shower ima snatch and run.” Two minutes later, she said she was going to walk out and wrote, “just come in,” the complaint continued.

Martens texted at 1:39 a.m.: “Hurry up” and then at 1:42 a.m., “Let’s goooooo,” according to the complaint.

The complaint doesn’t indicate who shot Gutzman, and police said Friday their investigation continues.

On Wednesday, officers responded to Martens’ online posting and arrested her when she arrived. She wouldn’t talk to investigators about the text exchange that brought her to Gutzman’s home, “but she later said investigators knew her line of work,” according to the complaint.

Police asked Martens about a gun she’d reported stolen. She said she had a permit to carry, and she’d had people over to her apartment and a gun was stolen between May 30 and 31. She said it was the third gun stolen from her “because she surrounds herself with (expletive) people,” the complaint continued.

Investigators showed Martens a photo of a purple Ford Fusion taken from surveillance video by Gutzman’s home and she said it was her car, but she said she had let a friend drive it. She wouldn’t give the friend’s name.

A cellphone analysis of Martens’ phone also showed it was in the area of Gutzman’s address between 1:09 a.m. and 1:43 a.m. on July 5.

Martens was booked into the Ramsey County jail, where phone calls are recorded. She talked to her brother, telling him, “I didn’t kill anybody.” When he asked what she was doing, she said, “I was just hitting some licks. I was just trying to get some money,” the complaint said of a recording. “Hitting licks” means committing robberies.

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An autopsy found Gutzman died from a distant gunshot wound to the head and neck.

It was his former girlfriend who went to his house July 5 and discovered him bloody on the floor. She ran outside, screaming for help, and asked someone to call 911 because she didn’t have a cellphone. Officers were sent to the home about 7:30 a.m., and Gutzman was pronounced dead.

Investigators tracked Gutzman’s ex-girlfriend’s movements through surveillance video and eliminated her as a suspect, the complaint said.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Martens with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. At her first court appearance Friday, Martens’ bail was set at $1 million and she was granted a public defender.