State Police finally can arrest the suspect in a November rape case now that the state crime lab has returned a DNA match on the man.
Timothy Martinez, 22, of La Mesilla, is accused of raping a woman twice and assaulting a man Nov. 8, 2008 in La Mesilla. State Police forwarded the report to the District Attorney’s office, but the office refused to approve an arrest warrant based on the available evidence, State Police Sgt. Chris Valdez said. A.J. Salazar, who was in charge of the Española office at the time, did not return a call for comment.
Court documents and Valdez provide an account of the attack and the follow-up investigation:
Eloy Sanchez and a woman were having sex in a car parked on the shoulder of State Road 399 the day of the incident after meeting at Big Rock Casino, court documents state. Martinez approached the car brandishing a gun, pointed it at Sanchez and the woman and demanded Sanchez hand over his wallet and driver’s license.
Sanchez told police he handed over his license but wasn’t sure if he kept his wallet. At Martinez’s order, Sanchez got in the back of the car. As Martinez drove the vehicle, Sanchez jumped out of the moving car and fled down the road, leaving the female with Martinez.
Sanchez was wearing a shirt, but no pants, when he knocked on doors in La Mesilla around 4 a.m., causing several people to be too alarmed to offer help. Eventually someone agreed to call police for Sanchez, who led officers back to the scene.
While police were photographing and examining shoe prints and tire marks at the scene, an anonymous tipster stopped and advised police where they might find someone matching the description of the then-unknown assailant.
At a Private Drive 1148 residence, officers found shoe prints and tire marks appearing to match those found at the scene. A woman identifying herself as the landlord told police her grandson Timothy Martinez stayed at a trailer on the property, owned no vehicle and went everywhere on foot.
After the alleged rape, Martinez let the victim go when he parked Sanchez’s car in an alley. Martinez then fled on foot.
State Police found the victim driving Sanchez’s car on State Road 399.
Meanwhile, the woman was given an examination by a sexual assault examiner and interviewed by police. She could not identify the outside of Martinez’s trailer as the place where she was raped twice, but did describe the inside of the trailer accurately. Further complicating the case was the fact that neither Sanchez nor the female victim could pick Martinez out of a photo lineup, Valdez said.
But the state crime lab returned good news to State Police Jan. 16 — a positive match for the DNA submitted with a subject in its offender database. The sample was first proven not to be Sanchez’s DNA, and instead came up with a match for Timothy Martinez. Based on this new evidence, Assistant District Attorney Timothy Hasson approved an arrest warrant for Martinez Feb. 13. He has been charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping and two counts of rape.
Martinez has outstanding charges of assault and battery on a household member from June. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is encouraged to call police at 753-5555.