Once Jose Manuel Martinez acknowledged a vast killing spree, which included nine people in California, officials set out to decide whether the self-described cartel enforcer actually carried out the horrific crimes.
Details the 53-year-old Martinez provided confirmed his claims. He described with remarkable accuracy the victims’ clothes, body positions and the caliber of bullets he fired, investigators said.
“He was spot on almost 100 percent of the time,” Tulare County Assistant Sheriff Scott Logue said.
On Tuesday, a judge in central California accepted a guilty plea from Martinez that is to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Yet confirming his ties to Mexican drug cartels could not be independently determined, Logue said, because Martinez refuses to name them.
Martinez was arrested in 2013, acknowledging a violent career that he said involved more than 30 killings across the US.
Martinez is next month to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole under the terms of a plea deal that removes the possibility of the death penalty.
The deal came on the same day a preliminary hearing was set to begin to determine if Martinez would stand trial.
Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said prosecutors were pleased about resolving the case.
Martinez also pleaded guilty to a count of attempted murder of a 17-year-old.
Last year, Martinez pleaded guilty in Alabama to killing a man for making derogatory remarks about Martinez’s daughter. He was given a prison sentence of 50 years.
In California, he was charged with killing people in Tulare, Kern and Santa Barbara counties between 1980 and 2011. The victims ranged in age from 22 to 56.
Martinez also is facing two murder charges in Florida.
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