Police misled suspect with fake stories

Jul. 23—No fewer than six detectives interrogated Fabian Gonzales in the hours after 10-year-old Victoria Martens was killed and her body dismembered and burned in a bathtub on Aug. 23, 2016.

Josh Brown, then the Albuquerque Police Department's lead detective on the case, testified the entire morning Friday. It was his second day on the stand. In questioning from Gonzales' attorney, Stephen Aarons, Brown confirmed portions of interrogation transcripts the attorney read. In them, Brown and the other detectives made up stories indicating that Gonzales' cousin, Jessica Kelley, and Michelle Martens, Victoria's mother, implicated him in the killing of the child and in the attempt to dismember and dispose of her body.

Brown, now an APD internal affairs sergeant, said concocting stories is a standard interrogation technique used by investigators to try get people involved in a crime to "flip on each other" and reveal the truth.

Gonzales and Martens were arrested shortly after Victoria's death and originally charged with rape and murder. Those charges were dropped in 2018 after authorities discovered that Gonzales and Martens were not at the apartment at the time of Victoria's death. At the time, prosecutors acknowledged that many of the initial allegations had been based on false admissions by Martens.

While Gonzales didn't personally strangle Victoria, prosecutors now argue, he created the danger that led to her death, and he tampered with the evidence of her murder.

Gonzales' attorney counters that Kelley, the prosecution's "star witness," was the actual killer and that prosecutors gave her a generous plea deal.

Gonzales, 37, is standing trial on charges of child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12, and seven counts of tampering with evidence and conspiracy to tamper with evidence.

Portions of interrogation transcripts were read in the 2nd Judicial District courtroom of Judge Cindy Leos on Friday. Those transcripts indicated detectives used extremely graphic language and imagery in telling Gonzales that Kelley or Michelle Martens, or both of them, had turned on Gonzales. The detectives said the women confessed that they and Gonzales had been smoking meth with Victoria, that the child had been raped and Michelle Martens watched as her child was violated.

Despite those tactics, Aarons noted, Gonzales repeatedly told detectives he had no role in Victoria's death.

An autopsy report revealed the child had no drugs in her system and no evidence of semen.

A detective in another interrogation transcript told Gonzales that because this was a high-profile case involving the death and possibly the rape of a child, it would be difficult to keep hidden from other prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

"How do you think that's going to make your visit there when you go on to DOC (Department of Corrections) after court and you're convicted?" the detective asked Gonzales.

Aarons also questioned Brown about the efficacy of fabricating stories, noting that some suspects might be influenced to provide a statement to fit the story they've been told, people like Michelle Martens, who, Aarons said, was experiencing trauma after being told the fate of her daughter.

Chief Deputy District Attorney James Grayson played a portion of a video in which Gonzales is shown motioning over and over how Kelley allegedly held a knife and plunged it into Victoria Martens' torso. That video, Grayson noted, was made after Gonzales had earlier told investigators that he witnessed nothing regarding the child's death.

Most of the afternoon was taken up by the testimony of Jeffrey Smith, a forensic scientist with the Department of Public Safety, who has expertise in bringing out latent prints on surfaces and interpreting specific characteristics about those prints.

Smith said he examined 86 items taken from the apartment. Among them was a kitchen knife set and wooden block, which did not yield any usable prints. Gonzales' fingerprints were on a mop handle and some DVDs, Smith testified.

A fingerprint on the inside of an orange laundry basket, Smith said, was from Kelley.

Attorneys have previously noted that a white plastic bag containing Victoria Martens' severed limbs was found inside an orange laundry basket in the apartment.

Testimony will resume on Monday.

Michelle Martens, 40, pleaded guilty in 2018 to child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12. She has not yet been sentenced.

Kelley, 37, pleaded no contest to six felony charges, including child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12. She was sentenced to 44 years in prison, but will be eligible for release in half that time.

Both she and Martens are required to testify in Gonzales' trial as part of their plea agreements.