An Oktibbeha jury has found Lydia Martinez guilty of first-degree murder in the 2015 slaying of her son-in-law, Manuel Vasquez, at the family’s New Hope home.
The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated 3 ½ hours Friday before returning the verdict after listening to dramatic testimony of Martinez and her daughter, Christina Martinez. While mother and daughter both acknowledged their own roles in burning the body and other efforts to cover up the crime, each laid the blame for Manuel’s shooting death on the other.
Judge Lee Coleman pronounced the sentence of life imprisonment after releasing the jury.
Lydia Martinez, 61, said she agreed to help burn the body, conceal evidence and maintain the false narrative that Manuel had left town on a religious retreat as an explanation for her son-in-law’s absence. She vehemently denied any role in the shooting death in the early morning hours of June 24, 2015.
Martinez testified that she was upstairs in her bedroom when the shots were fired. Earlier testimony from two of her grandchildren placed her upstairs as well, although neither of the children mentioned the fact during interviews with law enforcement during the 2015 investigation.
Lydia Martinez also wrote a suicide note/confession letter and confessed that she killed Manuel to a paramedic and later a sheriff’s investigator.
Christina Martinez pleaded to second-degree murder in the case in 2019. She insisted Friday that she did not shoot her husband but that her guilty plea was made because she acknowledged her guilt in covering up the crime.
Friday’s verdict came after four days of testimony, including testimony from all five surviving members of the family who shared a home in New Hope and were present at the home in the early morning hours of June 24, when both Lydia Martinez and Christina Martinez testified Manuel was shot and killed while in bed in the downstairs master bedroom.
Christina Martinez said that she entered the master bedroom after Lydia had fired the first shot in the bad of Manuel’s head. She said that when she saw her mother aiming the gun at Manuel again, she tried to take the gun from her. In the struggle for the gun, a second shot was fired, hitting Manuel near the hip.
The Dispatch will have further coverage of the trial in Sunday’s print edition.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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