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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 a
Jury convicts SNM 'soldier' on murder, racketeering charges yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Martinez, also of Truchas, was acquitted of witness tampering.
Because of reports of threats by SNM members, court security and U.S. marshals were on high alert to protect witnesses, prosecutors, the judge and others during the two-week trial in federal court in Albuquerque.
Three prosecution witnesses, including Martinez’s ex-wife, were arrested, jailed and brought to court in handcuffs after they failed to show up to testify after being subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.
Martinez, aka Mono, is a five-time felon in state court and the 10th SNM member to be convicted at trial under the federal Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering law. The prosecution stemmed from an ongoing six-year FBI investigation aimed at dismantling the 41-year-old SNM criminal enterprise that operates inside and outside prisons.
New Mexico gang member convicted of murder, racketeering
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A federal court jury has convicted a self-proclaimed member of a New Mexico prison gang of ordering and participating in the 2008 killing of a man who allegedly disrespected the gang and was left dead, naked and facedown in an icy river. The Albuquerque Journal reported that 41-year-old Jody Rufino Martinez faces life in prison after the jury found him guilty on Tuesday of racketeering and murder in the death of 34-year-old David Romero to advance his own standing in the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico gang. Three other people who allegedly participated in Romero’s killing gave statements that implicated Martinez. Martinez’s defense attorney Nicholas Hart said the claims were false.