Cellphones may provide more clues in Victoria’s slaying
More than a year after the heinous sexual assault and murder of 10-yearold Victoria Martens, Albuquerque police investigators are poring over phone and social media records, and now believe there are “unknown individuals who ultimately may be witnesses in this case,” court records show.
Up to now, three people — Jessica Kelley; her cousin, Fabian Gonzales; and the girl’s mother, Michelle Martens — have been charged in the death of the young girl, who was strangled, stabbed, dismembered and burned between the evening of Aug. 23, 2016, and the early morning of Aug. 24, 2016.
Investigators in court records stated the information culled so far showed the three defendants engaged in photo-taking, “chats” and other Facebook activity before and after Victoria’s death.
Most recently, the focus has been on Kelley’s cellphone and Facebook social media traffic.
Kelley’s cellphone “indicates multiple uses of Facebook messenger to communicate with unknown individuals who may ultimately be witnesses in this case or have important information related to it,” APD Violent Crimes Detective Josh Brown stated in an affidavit.
Investigators have sought court orders to extract additional evidence
from the private cellphone companies involved.
“The State has demonstrated that the Defendants were using their phones to communicate with outside individuals before and leading up to the crime at issue here,” states one court document, “that they were either in possession of or using their phones at or near the time of the killing, and … when they apparently left the apartment at certain key times of the day.”
A similar motion by prosecutors sought information from Facebook.
“The State has demonstrated that each Defendant was using Facebook to communicate with outside individuals before and leading up to the crime at issue here, that they were using Facebook to communicate with each other in the same time frame, and that they were using Facebook after the killing of V.M.”
Court records show state District Judge Charles Brown of Albuquerque on June 22 signed an order requiring Martens’ and Gonzales’ cellphone information to be produced from phone companies, but Kelley’s cellphone was left off the order.
Months went by before the judge signed a new order for T-Mobile USA/Metro PCS to produce cellphone records, data and information for Kelley’s cellphone. The documents do not explain the delay in retrieving the information from Kelley’s phone.
In an Oct. 10 order, Brown noted that prosecutors have “provided specific articulable facts that demonstrate that reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of … Kelley’s cell phone records are relevant and material to this ongoing criminal investigation and prosecution.”
Tying up loose ends
The initial analysis by the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory showed the defendants “were actively using Facebook in the hours after the apparent homicide, including ‘chats’ with each other and the sharing of at least one photograph,” the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office states in one court record.
According to police reports, someone in Martens’ apartment that night gathered up the defendants’ cellphones and placed them into a white purse found inside an orange laundry basket in the living room. The positioning of the handbag and its contents suggested to the officers that the defendants had gathered the phones with the intention of disposing of them.
Police needed court orders to find information that isn’t stored on the phones, such as accurate time and space data related to each phone’s contact with cellphone towers.
“Much of this information is likely evidence of the crime or may be information that will help establish, among other things, communications and conspiracy, timelines, activities, and consciousness of guilt,” states a prosecution motion.
Here is a partial timeline, extracted from court records, police complaints and news reports:
At about 8 p.m. on the evening ■ of Aug. 23, 2016, a young neighbor noticed Michelle Martens and her new boyfriend Fabian Gonzales sitting in her Gold Buick listening to music in front of her West Side apartment.
At some point, Gonzales’ cousin Jessica Kelley was seen coming down the stairs of the second story apartment building holding 10-year-old Victoria Martens. Kelley then turned around and went back upstairs with the girl.
At 9 p.m., Gonzales or someone ■ using his phone was watching YouTube.
At about 10:16 p.m., well after ■ investigators have concluded the child was likely dead, Michelle Martens sent Gonzales a photo.
Well into the late evening and ■ morning hours, Michelle Martens was browsing Facebook looking at photos of her children and family. By that time, police have determined, her daughter was already dead.
Kelley’s last incoming call ■ was at 10:22 p.m., but the court records don’t say who called her. Location data suggests her phone was used to access the “maps” application at about 3:56 a.m. the next morning, just minutes before police were called to the scene.
Prosecutors seeking cellphone and social media evidence hope to tie up loose ends, expand their knowledge of what happened and possibly show contradictions in the defendants’ stories.
For example, Michelle Martens accessed Facebook at a time she claimed to have been asleep.
Gonzales, meanwhile, used Facebook to communicate with both Martens and Kelley in the time leading up to the crimes.
Investigators said in court documents that Victoria Martens was likely killed sometime before 10 p.m. that night. But police didn’t arrive on the scene until after 3:30 a.m. the next morning, responding to an aggravated assault call. They found Victoria’s dismembered body inside a blanket set on fire in a bathtub in Martens’ apartment.
All three defendants were apprehended at the apartment complex. All three remain jailed on first-degree murder and child sexual abuse charges awaiting trial.