Charges refiled against Alcalde woman

Faces murder charge in connection with 2012 shooting death

SANTA FE — An open count of murder against an Alcalde woman has been refiled nearly four years after the charge was dropped by a former Santa Fe district attorney.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Schrope filed a criminal information Oct. 11 charging 39-year-old Kaiwee Martinez with an open count of first-degree murder for allegedly killing 33-yearold Taos resident Lawrence Sandoval on Nov. 3, 2012.

Martinez was charged with Sandoval’s murder and tampering with evidence in Española Magistrate Court in January 2013, but the case was dropped without prejudice two days later by former District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco. Pacheco said at the time that the investigation by the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office was incomplete and needed more information.

Schrope could not be reached Friday for comment as to why the charges were filed again.

According to court documents from the original case, Martinez told deputies that Sandoval was harassing her at an Españolaarea casino the night before he was killed. The next morning she said he forced her way into her home, threatened her with a knife and told her to remove her clothes. She said she got a gun from under her pillow and shot him while he was on top of her.

But investigators didn’t buy her story. A search warrant affidavit said casino surveillance showed Martinez and Sandoval being intimate with each other and leaving the casino together the night before the shooting. When confronted with the evidence, Martinez changed her story and said she dropped Sandoval off on the side of the road before she went home.

Court documents said the fatal shot went into the back of Sandoval’s head and that Martinez’s DNA was on a loincloth he was wearing at the time of his death, disputing her claim that the two were never intimate.

Martinez is out of jail on a $10,000 signature bond, according to court filings.