A Colorado state security guard was arrested on duty last week with a severed hand in his coat pocket. Just the next day, a decapitated body was found in a nearby stream.
Solomon Martinez, 26, was arrested at his workplace on January 11th on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of a woman believed to be the owner of the hand. This was announced by Pueblo Police.
The suspect admitted to hiring the woman as a prostitute a few days earlier, but denied murdering her.
Police quickly zeroed in on Martinez after his roommate caught him covered in dirt and blood at a local car wash just before 5 a.m. two days before his arrest.
According to an arrest affidavit, Martinez allegedly used a pressure washer to clean blood from his hands and asked his roommate to dig a 10-foot hole. Obtained by the chief of the Pueblo tribe.
The roommate was reportedly at the car wash to work on his car and Martinez asked him to borrow some tools, but the murder suspect opened the trunk of the car to retrieve the tools. He told police that he did not allow him to open it.
Martinez allegedly struggled to move “large items” out of the way in the trunk to retrieve tools.
Another witness supported the roommate's claims and reported hearing Ms. Martinez make several comments about needing to dig a deep hole.
The witness, a friend of the security guard, also told police he saw Martinez drag what appeared to be a woman's body down to the creek bed earlier that day.
Records show Martinez first asked a friend to help dispose of the body and then threatened him with a gun, but the friend refused.
The body was decapitated, but friends reported that her head was with the body. He filmed a video at the scene to “cover himself” before covering himself with a blanket because he “didn't know what else to do.”
Police determined that Martinez worked for a security company owned by a former Pueblo County sheriff who had hired the murder suspect just two weeks earlier.
That's when investigators discovered a human hand inside a plastic bag tucked into the left breast pocket of Martinez's jacket, the affidavit says. He admitted that he had been carrying it around for two days.
Police noticed cuts all over Martinez's wrists and hands, but Martinez tried to explain that the injuries were caused by his Chihuahua, but later claimed they were caused by a small rock while picking up after the dog. .
His car was also covered in blood.
Martinez tried to pin the blame for the murder on a friend who shot the video, but when police viewed the video they noticed it showed a headless body.
The suspect claimed that a friend had “borrowed” the car, which also contained a gun and a cell phone at the time, and asked Martinez to remove his hands.
When asked if police could find anything incriminating on his phone, Martinez said he was “probably afraid of knowing.”
Martinez was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and is being held in the Pueblo County Jail on $1 million cash-only bail.
Pueblo is a city located 64 miles south of Colorado Springs.
