NM guard’s affair with convicted killer is beyond troubling

It’s like the plot of a film noir Hollywood script. But the case of the gang killer and his jailer girlfriend is nonfiction, and it is troubling on so many levels.

Jody Rufino Martinez, 41, is a self-professed “soldier” in the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang and is looking at life in federal prison after his conviction last month on murder and racketeering charges.

But top billing goes to Santana Bustamante, 29. She’s a corrections officer at the Rio Arriba County Detention Center in Tierra Amarilla, where Martinez was a prisoner. Somewhere along the line, they became lovers.

The jailer was linked to the killer when federal authorities began investigating SNM’s criminal activities. A month after his release from jail in September 2018, Martinez allegedly shot a man in the groin. The FBI says Bustamante waited in a truck outside the victim’s home while Martinez went inside and shot the man. In a movie, that role is called the wheelman. Bustamante also allegedly helped Martinez get a .40-caliber Glock, which investigators believe was used in the shooting of a Martinez rival. Bustamante was also investigated for allegedly helping inmates at her jail retaliate against the shooting victim after he recovered and returned to the jail in January 2019. The victim said Bustamante circulated a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office report saying he was cooperating with police. Any film buff knows “snitch” can be a death sentence in jail.

But nothing stuck. Bustamante, who has no arrests or convictions, denies wrongdoing. She hasn’t been charged and says not being fired proves her innocence.

Perhaps. Or perhaps it proves nobody wants to mess with the main squeeze of a prison gangster.

In May 2018, just weeks after Martinez was jailed at the Rio Arriba facility on a probation violation, Bustamante’s Facebook page stated “In a relationship Rufino Martinez.” Martinez remained at the jail for about five months. Investigators later found intimate photos of Bustamante and Martinez on her cellphone.

Bustamante says her romantic relationship with Martinez began after he was released in September 2018. Note the timing and that it’s against federal and state laws for jailers to have any sort of sexual relationship with an inmate because inmates cannot legally give consent.

Jail employees told the FBI that Bustamante entered Martinez’s cell alone on numerous occasions, provided him with outside food, and they spent time alone outside the view of surveillance cameras. A jailhouse informant said Martinez bragged about how Bustamante could obtain police records and find out where people lived and if they had “snitched” on anyone.

Bustamante’s description of the time line doesn’t track with her Facebook relationship status. Aren’t there ethical guidelines for corrections officers regarding relationships with ex-inmates, especially ones deep in prison crime syndicates that operate inside and outside prison walls, who have been convicted of federal felonies? It’s shocking she would still have a taxpayer-funded job at that jail.

Rio Arriba County Detention Center administrator Larry DeYapp says there was no direct proof of Bustamante aiding and abetting Martinez and he didn’t have enough information to fire her. The relationship status and those graphic couple photos posted on her Facebook page call that into question. And why isn’t there video evidence of her entering Martinez’s cell alone or providing outside food? Isn’t it against policy to spend time alone with an inmate outside the view of surveillance cameras?

In a larger sense, is a prison gang effectively running the remote jail in tiny Tierra Amarilla? Does Martinez wield power there through Bustamante? Are other inmates and corrections officers afraid to talk because of the threat of retaliation from a notorious prison gang?

To top it all off, Bustamante says she’s in the testing process to get into law enforcement. Not comforting.

So what can we expect in a sequel? There’s an old saying that offers an answer: “Dime con quién andas y te diré cõmo eres.” Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.