S.F. worker accused of robbery, possibly on clock
Victim says suspect in mugging ‘made the sign of the cross,’ apologized
Police have arrested a Santa Fe city employee on suspicion of robbing a New Jersey couple at gunpoint at the same time he was supposed to be at work.
Ricardo Martinez, 27, a custodian assigned to clean City Hall and the Main Library, works from 1 to 10 p.m., and the Oct. 10 armed robbery he’s accused of committing occurred just before his shift was over, according to a police report. Police arrested him Wednesday, and he remained in jail Thursday.
“Obviously, any time an employee is accused of a crime, regardless of the details, criminal activity is something we take very, very seriously,” said city spokesman Matt Ross.
The city recently adopted a timekeeping system that requires employees to clock in and out of work. But the city has not yet determined whether Martinez had punched out by the time of the robbery or if he was still on the clock.
“His employment status hasn’t changed at this point,” Ross said. “But we’re gathering information. The police are conducting their investigations. As soon as that process has come to a close, we’ll take action.”
Police arrested Martinez after a traffic stop in the 2600 block of Cerrillos Road “due to suspicious activity.” Martinez, who has been employed by the city since February 2016, making about $26,000 a year, was suspected to be under the influence of heroin, police said.
The officer who made the traffic stop reported seeing marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia in Martinez’s car and arrested him for possession, a police report states. Police then searched Martinez’s car and found a black backpack containing a green ski mask and a black Airsoft gun that police said looked like a real handgun.
The couple held up by an armed robber near East Palace Avenue and Cienega Street earlier this month said the suspect was wearing a bright green ski mask.
“The robbery occurred approximately .3 miles from Mr. Martinez’s place of employment at the Santa Fe Public Library,” a police report states.
Video surveillance from a nearby gallery captured the moments leading up to the armed robbery of the two tourists, who were walking back to the bed and breakfast where they were staying after attending a concert.
“Holding the gun with his right hand, he made the sign of the cross,” the male victim, who watched the surveillance video after the robbery, said in a telephone interview from New Jersey. “When he took my wife’s purse, he said, ‘Sorry,’ and ran off.”
The man said the surveillance camera didn’t record the actual robbery, “but they got him approaching us with the gun in his hand.” The victim said he felt sorry for the robber. “My wife and I are Roman Catholic,” he said. “You kind of don’t think of people making the sign of the cross as they commit crimes if they’re hardened criminals.”
The man said the robber pulled out a handgun and demanded that he place his wallet in his wife’s purse.
“My wife started to back away, and I just simply said, ‘Do what he says.’ I put my wallet in her purse. The young guy grabbed my wife’s purse, said, ‘Sorry,’ and ran up Cienega Street toward Marcy” Street.
The robber didn’t point the gun directly at the couple, the man said.
“He had the gun aimed in between us,” the man said, adding that the robber seemed “very nervous.”
Soon after the armed robbery, the male victim said the thief used one of his credit cards to make two purchases at a Sonic Drive-In. The first was for $10.91, and the second one, about seven minutes later, was for $5.73.
“There were three attempts with one of my credit cards — two at Sonic, which happened like within half an hour of the whole event, and then about six hours later, he tried to get gas for his car,” the victim said. “If he were a real hardened criminal, he wouldn’t be spending 15 bucks at Sonic and trying to get a tank of gas. … If his first action was to go get something to eat, that’s what led my wife and I to think this is more a crime of desperation.”
The man also said he and his wife feared for their lives, having never faced an armed robber before.
“We live about 25 miles from midtown Manhattan, and we go into New York regularly. We’ve never had anything like this happen in New York,” he said. “I work in Newark, New Jersey, which tends to have a terrible reputation. In 26 years of working there, never had an incident. My wife and I lived in Europe and never had a robbery of any sort.”
The couple had traveled to Santa Fe for the first time to celebrate the man’s retirement from a utility company the Friday before the armed robbery. He said they presumed — “probably a bad presumption” — that they had nothing to worry about in a “safe little city” like Santa Fe.
Despite their run-in with an armed robber, the man said, he and his wife would return to Santa Fe.
“It was a damper on [the trip], but we still had a great time,” he said. “We enjoyed the city. We enjoyed the restaurants. We enjoyed the galleries, museums. We would still come back.”
Police recovered the woman’s purse, which contained her cellphone and credit cards and his wallet. Her jewelry and their cash was missing. The man also said CDs they purchased before they left the concert were never recovered.
“Either [the robber is] a fan of the musician or he was going to get like five bucks or something for a few CDs,” he said.
Police said the suspect captured in the video surveillance footage appears to match Martinez’s description and “carrying what appears to be a handgun in his left hand.”