Suspect Who Killed 5 In California Home Also Fatally Beat Toddler, Police Say

Authorities say a man killed two women and three young girls, including his six-month-old daughter, in Northern California on Saturday, two days after a medical examiner said the 2014 death of a two-year-old boy, an incident he was also suspected in, was a homicide.

Martin Martinez, 30, was arrested Sunday in San Jose after leaving a movie theatre with his father, Modesto Police Chief Galen Carroll said. On Saturday, police found the bodies of two women and three young girls inside a Modesto, California, home, all of them were related.

One of the women, Amanda Crews, had a previous relationship with Martinez and was the mother of his six-month-old daughter Rachel, the Merced Sun-Star reported.

Martinez’s mother, Ana Brown Romero, was also killed in the attack, Carroll said, as well as five and six-year-old girls. One of the girls was visiting.

Carroll declined to say how they were all killed and said investigators had not established a motive.

Martin Martinez

Santa Clara County Sheriff via AP

On Thursday, a pathologist gave Modesto police “verbal notification” that the 2014 death of Crew’s son from a former marriage, Christopher Ripley, was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. Ripley sustained head injuries while Martinez watched him.

Carroll said it took nine months after Ripley’s death to make the homicide determination because it took some time to hire a pathologist and complete an investigation.

“The Modesto Police Department did not drop the ball,” Carroll said. “At the time there was no indication there would be any violence within that family, there were no calls for service at that location.”

Martinez and Cruz maintained a relationship despite the Department of Child Protective Services stepping in to protect Cruz and their daughter after Ripley died, Carroll said. Child services issued an order against Martinez, and the pair was not living together for the last two months.

After Saturday’s killing and the pathologist’s findings, Carroll said officers sped up their efforts to get a warrant from a judge for Martinez’s arrest in Ripley’s death.

Carroll said the number of people who knew about the pathologist’s findings in Ripley’s death was limited and isn’t believed to have been a factor in the killings.

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