Boyfriend charged in April death of ABQ woman, 20
Man, 21, has been in custody since May in a separate homicide
Deputies say a man killed his girlfriend and drove around with her body in the car for hours — getting food and lighter fluid — before dumping the 20-year-old in Sandoval County and trying to light the car on fire in Corrales.
Jonathan Martinez, 21, is charged with an open count of murder, tampering with evidence and false imprisonment in the April 15 death of Yasmin Marquez.
Marquez had been reported missing and her body was found May 26 beneath debris in the mesa along U.S. 550, a few miles west of Rio Rancho. Court records do not detail a cause of death and Martinez’s attorney could not be reached Thursday.
Martinez has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center since early May in a separate homicide.
In that case, Martinez is accused in a July 2021 shooting that left Trevonte Robbins, 19, dead and an officer injured when his patrol vehicle was struck by gunfire.
In 2019, Martinez was accused of shooting a gun during a road rage incident with a man and his mother, but the case was dropped when the pair did not cooperate, according to court records.
On April 15, Marquez’s mother reported her missing when she didn’t answer her phone and her car was not at the family home, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court. The mother told deputies that Marquez had previously run off to Juarez, Mexico, with Martinez after he was accused in the 2021 homicide.
She said Marquez returned home in early April because “she did not feel safe,” telling family and friends that Martinez would lock her in the house in Mexico, and had pointed a gun at her head. A friend told deputies Marquez texted her on April 15 that Martinez was in town and, later, that “Imma get killed.”
Deputies found Marquez’s abandoned, partially burned car the next day in Corrales, according to the affidavit. Martinez was arrested May 2 and found with Marquez’s phone.
Deputies said they traced the phone’s locations and found the pair met at Kirtland Park on April 15 before they went to Pajarito Mesa. In the hours after, surveillance footage showed Martinez buying food at McDonald’s and lighter fluid from a Walmart in Bernalillo.
On May 26, detectives got data from Martinez’s phone showing he stopped along U.S. 550 after leaving the Walmart, according to the complaint. Detectives went to the area and “immediately encountered the smell and odor of decomposition.”
Deputies said Marquez’s body was found beneath a pile of roofing debris. A medical investigator found no “obvious signs of trauma.”
In Marquez’s phone, deputies found screenshots of messages from Martinez’s Facebook profile, telling Marquez, “You don’t love me” and “I ain’t good enough for you so ima just kill you.”