Suspect in double murder arrested Monday

A man and a woman are dead and a suspect is in custody following a shooting Monday night in a residential neighborhood near the intersection of Siringo Road and Camino Consuelo.

Manuel Joseph Martinez, 23, is behind bars in connection with the shooting deaths of 19-year-old Abraham Dominic Romo and 23-year-old Ebony Faith Martinez of Santa Fe.

According to a Community Alert social media post from SFPD, Santa Fe Police Department officers responded to a noise complaint coming from under the bridge near Siringo Road and Camino Consuelo around 11 p.m. on Monday.

According to an SFPD media release Tuesday evening, upon arrival, officers saw a black Cadillac SUV that appeared to have left the roadway and entered the arroyo. Police “immediately made contact” with a male suspect “covered in blood” who had a firearm in his hand and had exited the vehicle. The suspect dropped the weapon and initially tried to flee on foot, but officers arrested him shortly afterwards.

At that point, police officers found the deceased man and woman – each with at least one gunshot wound – in the vehicle.

Monday morning's killings mark another gun violence incident in Santa Fe in recent months. Police officers arrested Zachary Ryan Babitz, a man accused of killing an 83-year-old during a robbery in the Best Buy parking lot on Zafarano Drive in early August. of shooting and killing a year-old man. Previously, in late July, a man shot an employee in the head at the Sonic Drive-In restaurant on Cerrillos Road.

District 4 Councilwoman Jamie Cassutt, whose district has been the scene of several murders in recent months, tells SFR that she has been “working closely with District 4 Councilwoman Amanda Chavez to organize a community meeting later this month focused on to organize public safety.” SFPD officers and members of the city's Constitutional Division will participate, Cassutt adds.

“Residents no longer feel as safe in their homes as they once did. I think it's important to start these really concrete conversations and focus on how we can help each other with a lot of these issues,” she says, pointing to issues like neighborhood watch groups and the city's nuisance complaint process. “I am finalizing the details of the time and place for this community meeting.”

At the state and federal level, she adds, more needs to be done, including potentially reforming the “general criminal justice system” and implementing “sensible gun laws.”

“We have issues with gun violence and how easy it is to get guns, but when we have these conversations they often go to these black and white extremes of taking away everyone's guns or having no gun laws at all,” says Cassutt. “It’s not really a dichotomy that we have to choose from. We must advocate for better gun laws that ensure those who shouldn’t have guns don’t have guns.”

She notes that she will have discussions with state leaders from the Santa Fe delegation before the New Mexico Legislature's regular session in 2025.

Martinez has a criminal history including outstanding charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and trafficking in a controlled substance. He was arrested on September 22 on these charges, but was released conditionally by the court on his personal recognizance.

According to the criminal complaint regarding those allegations, Martinez threatened a Goodwill store employee with a replica handgun. Police reported that they found six bags of cocaine on Martinez at the time of his arrest that “appeared to have been packaged for sale.”

Martinez has already been arrested for violence. He was arrested for domestic violence last December and charged with strangling a woman in March of this year.

According to court records, both cases were dismissed without prejudice.

Martinez now faces two murder charges in connection with Monday's double murder; one count of tampering with evidence; and two counts of resisting and obstructing an officer. Officers sent him to the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center around noon on Tuesday, SFPD Deputy Chief Ben Valdez told SFR.

Anyone with information about the incident or surveillance camera footage of the incident is asked to call Santa Fe police at (505) 428-3710 or Detective Jairo DePaz at (505) 955-5297.

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