A Colorado security guard charged with killing a woman and decapitating her before dumping her body in a creek had a human hand in his jacket pocket when he was arrested.
Solomon Martinez was arrested after a witness showed police a video of the dead woman’s body in Fountain Creek near Pueblo, the Pueblo Chieftain reported. The witness, a friend of Martinez’s roommate, told police that he was with Martinez and saw him drag what appeared to be a body down to the creek bed. He said Martinez asked him to help, but he refused.
The witness reported that the woman had been decapitated but that he head waswith the body. When Martinez left the scene, the witness recorded a video of the body to “cover for himself” and put a blanket over her because he “didn’t know what else to do.”
The witness showed several people the video before police saw it.
Martinez’s roommate also told police that he and the other witness were at a car wash when Martinez arrived and used a power washer to wash blood off his hands.
Martinez was taken into custody at the Sangre De Cristo Arts Center, where he worked as a security guard, KRDO said. Police found the human hand in his jacket pocket, and the suspect told said in within their earshot it had been there for two days.
But he didn’t admit to killing the women, whose name has been withheld pending family notifications. He admitted that he had picked up a woman on the night of January 8 but dropped her off safely later that night.
The witness who recorded the video, he said, had later borrow his car and that he had left his phone and gun in the vehicle. The witness, he said, must have tracked the woman down and killed her, explaining the blood stains in the vehicle.
According to court documents, investigators asked Martinez to take off his gloves and found his hands covered in cuts, which he initially said came from his chihuahuas but later changed to say he’d cut his hands while picking up the dog’s feces in rocks, which cut his hands.
Investigators said they believed Martinez was deceitful during the interview, that he had difficulty remembering locations, and that his story was inconsistent with evidence they had collected.
Martinez, 26, was charged with first degree murder, according to the Pueblo Police Department.
