A Colorado security guard accused of killing a woman who was found dead in a creek allegedly had her severed hand in his pocket when he was arrested, police said.
The Pueblo Police Department said Solomon Martinez, 26, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with a woman found dead in Fountain Creek on Jan. 10. The woman was identified by the Pueblo County coroner as 47-year-old Renee Marie Portillos.
Martinez was arrested on Jan. 11 at a local security company where he worked after police were informed about the woman’s body in the creek and his alleged involvement, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Pueblo Chieftain.
The document stated that Martinez’s roommate ran into him at a car wash at around 5 a.m. on Jan. 9 and noticed he had dirt on his clothing and blood on his hands, which he washed off with a pressure washer hose. The roommate told police that Martinez asked him to dig a 10-foot hole for him.
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The roommate also told police he asked Martinez if he could borrow some tools and was not allowed to get the tools out of Martinez’s trunk himself. He claimed to observe Martinez struggling with “something big” when getting the tools for him, the affidavit said.
A second witness, who is friends with Martinez’s roommate and was with the two of them on Jan. 9, told police that Martinez said multiple times that he needed to dig a hole 6 to 10 feet deep, according to the affidavit.
The second witness also said he was alone with Martinez later that day when he allegedly dragged what appeared to be a decapitated woman’s body down to the creek.
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Martinez allegedly asked the second witness to help him and threatened him with a handgun, but he refused and later recorded a video of the body to “cover for himself,” which was shown to several people, including the roommate and the police.
The affidavit also stated that the witness said he covered the woman’s dismembered body with a blanket because he “didn’t know what else to do.”
When Martinez was arrested, police said a hand believed to belong to the woman was found inside a plastic bag in the left chest pocket of his jacket. Though he had the hand in his jacket and apparent bloodstains in his vehicle, according to the affidavit, Martinez blamed the woman’s death on the witness who recorded the aforementioned video and took it to the police.
Police interviewed Martinez for nearly three hours and decided he was being deceitful after he was inconsistent with information and evidence they claimed to already have, according to the affidavit.
Martinez was booked into the Pueblo County jail and is being held on $1,000,000 cash bond.
