PAIR JAILED FOR MURDER

(Left) Mike Contreras and (Right) Christopher Martinez

Two men are in Terry County Jail facing charges of 1st Degree Murder for the July 20 retaliation killing of Pete Martinez at a trailer in the 800 block of North A.

Brownfield Police officers arrested Mike Contreras, 20, of 1004 E. Oak, at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday without incident from his place of work in the 1100 block of E. Lake.

Chris Martinez, 24 was arrested July 30 after a manhunt on numerous charges, including endangerment of a child and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The 1st Degree Murder charge will be added to the other pending cases, Brownfield Police Chief Tony Serbantez said.

The chief told the Brownfield News Tuesday that the ongoing investigation into the city’s first murder in more than a decade led to both men.

“We have interviewed dozens of witnesses, some repeatedly in this very involved case,” he said. “It has taken a while because there were so many people and so many circumstances involved. But we’re glad to have somebody behind bars for this crime.”

Bond had not been set for the pair on the murder charges.

Martinez previous bond totaled $120,000 on several felony charges, however he is ineligible for bond because of parole violations.

The endangering a child charge stemmed from an incident in which Chris Martinez intentionally drove his car into another vehicle, which had a child in it.

Pete Martinez’ murder is believed by investigators to have been in retaliation for an armed robbery reported earlier in the night, but which he was not involved in, however he was accused by several subjects who gathered at his home of harboring those responsible.

The armed robbery was reported late Sunday night in an apartment at 307 Stewart Avenue.

A male subject contacted a police officer before midnight to report a burglary in progress and advised two men -- one black and one Hispanic -- held up him and another man at gunpoint and took an undisclosed amount of cash and a pair of tennis shoes.

Officers responded and advised that the suspects had fled south on A Street, but the robbery victims refused to provide descriptions, file a report or take any other action.

The black male subject was identified by police.

Dozens of witnesses have been interviewed since the investigation began and initial reports contained much conflicting information. Follow-up interviews have weeded out much of the bad information, Serbantez said.

Serbantez said it appears that the men who were held up gathered acquaintances and went looking for the pair who robbed them.

A verbal confrontation ensued at the home and Pete Martinez was accused of harboring the suspected robbers inside.

Serbantez said when the confrontation was winding down, two shots were fired from a small-caliber handgun. No handgun yet has been located, according to the chief.

One round struck the home and the other hit Martinez in the neck.

He was rushed by paramedics to Brownfield Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 2:17 a.m. by Justice of the Peace Mike Bennet.

Serbantez early on ruled out gang involvement in the case, but said it did appear to involve parties on both sides who have had disputes in the past.

Autopsy results confirmed that Martinez was killed by a small-caliber gunshot to the neck and a bullet was recovered from his body.  

Martinez was wearing a monitoring device on his ankle in accordance with his parole and couldn’t leave the house. Serbantez said he stepped out of the door to talk, leaving his foot in the house and he was struck by the bullet before he re-entered the residence.

Martinez was indicted by a Gaines County grand jury in 2002 for burglary of a habitation and found guilty in March of that year. He was fined $2,000 and sentenced to eight years in the Texas prison system.

Upon his release, he recently tried to turn over a new leaf and serve as a role model for area youth as a speaker for the Plain Talk program.

Serbantez said the men who reported the earlier robbery were present at the scene of the shooting, claiming they were looking for the assailants.

The case will be presented to a future Terry County Grand Jury.

Author: Brian Brisendine