Details of what New Mexico state authorities called an unspeakable crime surfaced on Thursday (Aug 25) in a complaint filed against the mother of the victim, her boyfriend and his cousin in connection to the murder. A baby was also in the vehicle at the time.
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Gonzales pleaded no contest in 2015 to two misdemeanors after his arrest for beating a woman in a vehicle with a baby inside it while the woman was driving. However, those court orders had not been followed.
Martinez was a prosecutor for 25 years before becoming governor and says she took on many gut-wrenching cases.
Albuquerque police say the people behind the crime include her own mother, Michelle Martens, her mother’s boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales and Gonzales’ cousin, Jessica Kelley.
According to APD, the three tortured the girl by drugging and raping her. Martens reportedly did not have a police record before participating in the homicide of her daughter, other than a traffic violation.
Kelley stood silent as Judge Schultz read the list of charges against her, among them child abuse resulting in death, as well as kidnapping.
She pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit criminal sexual penetration and was sentenced to three years in prison minus almost a year for time served.
Kelley was recently released from prison and was staying with Martens at the time of the slaying, Martens told police.
Gonzales is the boyfriend of the girl’s mother.
Jacobson said she was prohibited by law from disclosing whether the agency had received any other complaints related to Victoria, described by neighbors from her blue-collar apartment complex as a seemingly happy and sociable girl who loved to swim and dance.
Family Church in Albuquerque said it held a prayer meeting Thursday evening for Victoria Martens and friends. He said, according to CNN, that it was his cousin Kelley stabbed and dismembered Victoria.
Victoria Martens had just started fourth grade at an Albuquerque elementary school and celebrated her 10th birthday Tuesday. A third adult attempted to get away by jumping off a balcony. According to CNN, Martens had no pulse and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The battered and partially dismembered body of Victoria Martens was found wrapped in a blanket set on fire in an apartment by police responding to a report of a disturbance Wednesday morning.
According to the complaint, the child had no pulse, her left leg was nearly completely cut off and both arms were missing.
People reported that Victoria’s arms were later found in a plastic bag hidden in a hamper.
“I personally took on some of the most brutal, violent, gut-wrenching cases our state has ever seen”. The court set a $1 million bond for both.
Jessica Kelley made her first appearance in court on Saturday morning.
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New Mexico’s top child welfare official says there is no evidence of prior sexual abuse involving a 10-year-old Albuquerque girl who was drugged, raped, killed and dismembered this week but that investigators have opened a probe into the child’s living conditions.
