A Chimayó man took a global plea deal in two cases, one that started as an allegation of child rape, which will mean no time in prison.
Gilbert Martinez, 53, signed the global plea deal on Feb. 18. In it, he agreed to plead guilty to charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated second-offense drunk driving and unlawful taking of a vehicle.
In the Rio Arriba County case, he was initially charged by Española City Police with two counts of criminal sexual penetration in the first degree (child under 13 years of age), two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor in the second degree (child 13 to 18, unclothed, use of deadly weapon) and one count of abuse of a child, first offense.
Four of the five counts in the case were dismissed and Martinez waived his right to a preliminary hearing or grand jury presentment. The fifth count that wasn’t dismissed, first-degree child rape, was downgraded to aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, which is not a sex offense, according to court records.
As a result, Martinez will not be required to register as a sex offender.
While he received a suspended sentence, had prosecutors moved forward with the first-degree child rape charge, Martinez could have been facing a maximum sentence of 18 years.
District Judge T. Glenn Ellington, who accepted the global plea deal, ordered Martinez released following the hearing, according to court records.
Martinez had been held without bail since Jan. 9, 2024, when he was arrested on a warrant for the child rape charges. Shortly thereafter, a judge found him to be a danger to the community, according to court records.
First Judicial District Attorney’s Office Spokeswoman Catherine Lynch wrote in an email that in this case, “the plea to a serious violent offense protected the young victim from the re-traumatization that is perpetuated by our criminal justice system, and was in her best interests.“
The rape case
Española Police Detective Dwayne Epling wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant that, during a Sexual Assault Nurse Exam in December 2023, the victim, a 6-year-old girl, told a nurse that Martinez “was touching her with a knife and they didn’t have their pants on during it,” Epling wrote.
The nurse also said the girl alleged that Martinez told her that if she told anyone what he did to her, “I’ll cut your head off,” he wrote.
New case
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Deputy Joel Cano charged Martinez on Feb. 4 with armed robbery and unlawful taking of a vehicle for an alleged incident on Nov. 6, 2023. He identified Martinez as a suspect on Nov. 13, 2023.
That newest case is not a part of the global plea deal.
The victim told deputies that a man brandished a knife at him in front of Dan’s Liquors in Chimayó and demanded his vehicle, Cano wrote in a criminal complaint for Martinez’s arrest.
On July 30, 2024, the victim found his car, dismantled, at the Boneyard Auto Salvage, and told Cano. When Cano followed up with the salvage yard, he found that identification card on file for the person who brought it in was Martinez, Cano wrote.
Nothing in Cano’s criminal complaint indicates why the charges were filed now or when he followed up with the salvage yard.
Past SUN reports were used in this story.