Family mourns 'rainbow after a storm' as man sentenced for killing

Aniyah Martinez was born in Illinois but moved to Texas with her mother who struggled to escape a drug addiction.

She said she and her mother lived in Lubbock for a time to stay with family, but moved to the Rio Grande Valley region. During that turbulent part of her life, the only person from her family to keep in touch with her was her aunt, Monica Rubio.

"She would find ways to contact me," she said.

Martinez said she loved her aunt "more than anything" and there was no one in her life she was as close to than her.

"A lot of people thought we were sisters," she said.

She described Rubio as "a rainbow after a storm" because of how she calmed her down when other family members frustrated her. That made her aunt her first call when something bad happened.

Rubio, who taught her to cook, was known for her caldo.

"Sometimes it seemed like it was the only thing she knew how to cook," Martinez said, drawing chuckles from her family sitting in the courtroom gallery.

But her aunt, who had six children, did have her faults and also struggled with drug abuse.

"It didn't change who she was," Martinez said about her aunt. "She was always sweet and innocent."

After Rubio's death, Martinez said she feels lost and alone.

"All I had was her," she said between sobs.

Martinez's testimony on Thursday afternoon, May 9, in the 140th District Court began the punishment phase of the trial of 28-year-old Isaiah Montelongo, who dated Rubio, 29, for about six weeks before her death.

That morning, jurors in the 140th District Court deliberated for about 45 minutes before returning with a verdict finding Montelongo guilty of murder in Rubio's March 3, 2022, shooting death at his home in the 1900 block of 22nd Street.

They would deliberate for about 50 minutes before handing Montelongo the maximum sentence of life in prison. He will have to serve 30 years of his sentence before he is eligible for release on parole.

The verdict and sentence comes after a trial that began earlier this month when a jury of nine women and five men were selected to hear the case. Two of the jurors, a man and a woman, served as alternates.

Investigating a murder

Prosecutors presented evidence that showed Montelongo shot Rubio in his travel trailer, which was parked in his grandparent's driveway, then called police and made up a story that a Black man with an Afro hairstyle whom he'd never seen before shot his girlfriend before running away.

Rubio was taken by ambulance to the hospital where she died.

Dr. Tasha Zemrus, told jurors that the bullet struck Rubio at a downward trajectory, entering the right side of her upper lip, tearing through the insides of her mouth as it exited the base of her neck, hitting her carotid artery, jugular vein and cervical spine and exited the base of her neck, behind her left ear.

Zemrus said Rubio was likely shot from a distance as her wound lacked gunshot residue or soot -- the hallmarks of a point-blank shooting -- but she couldn't determine Rubio's position in the trailer when she was shot.

Montelongo, who has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since his March 3, 2022, arrest, didn't testify during the trial. However, prosecutors played video of his interviews with police officers and detectives during which he repeatedly said that a Black man shot Rubio outside his trailer, which was parked in the driveway of his grandmother's home.

Sergio Jimenez, a former Lubbock police officer who was first on the scene told jurors Montelongo was focused on making officers at the scene aware that another person shot Rubio.

"That's what he was fixated on," said Jimenez, who now works as an investigator for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

For six hours, Montelongo spoke with detectives Thomas Bonds and Joshua Franco and went through his version of how the shooting happened.

Montelongo said he was in bed in his travel trailer listening to music when he heard Rubio yelling his name.

He told investigators that Rubio left the night before and he didn't know she returned until he heard her.

He said he opened the door and saw Rubio running from a Black man.

He told detectives that Rubio was about to tell him something but looked back to the other man, who pulled out a pistol, shot her and ran down 22nd Street to Avenue T.

He said Rubio took a few steps before falling into his arms and he carried her into his trailer and laid her on the bed. However, he said he brought her out of the trailer when blood began gushing out of her gunshot wound.

Video from a responding officer's body-worn camera showed Montelongo cradling Rubio in the front lawn of the residence and yelling at her to hold on for the ambulance.

During the interview Montelongo could be seen demonstrating his version of the shooting that happened outside the trailer.

He admitted he and Rubio used drugs but denied arguing with Rubio or fighting with her.

He told detectives he didn't know who the man was or why he shot Rubio, but floated a theory that he was likely someone Rubio cheated out of drugs.

Montelongo wasn't Mirandized, meaning he wasn't advised of his rights against self-incrimination before the six-hour interview with detectives.

Bonds told jurors that at the time the Miranda warnings weren't necessary at that point since Montelongo wasn't considered a suspect and wasn't in custody until after the interview.

Bonds said Montelongo was free to end the interview and leave at any time.

Meanwhile, investigators worked behind the scenes and developed enough evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for Montelongo when his interview with detectives concluded.

Jurors were told they could consider statement in their deliberation if they believe Montelongo wasn't persuaded or compelled to speak with detectives.

Police investigators testified that the evidence at the scene did not support Montelongo's story that Rubio was shot outside the trailer.

Lubbock police detective Mike McGowen, who testified as a blood spatter expert, told jurors he documented the crime scene and found evidence that showed Rubio was shot in the trailer then moved to the front yard.

The main piece of evidence that contradicted Montelongo's story was a bullet, embedded with Rubio's hair, lodged in a blood-soaked pillow on the bed in the trailer.

Investigators also obtained videos from four security cameras at a home across the street from Montelongo's residence.

One of the cameras pointed directly at the driveway where Montelongo's trailer was parked. Another pointed down 22nd Street toward Avenue T.

Sgt. Justin Anderson, who obtained the videos, which were not played to jurors, said he found no footage of a Black man at Montelongo's home or running in the direction of Avenue T.

During the interview detectives confronted Montelongo with the video evidence and the bullet on his pillow, saying they contradicted his story that Rubio was shot outside the trailer. Montelongo denied shooting Rubio, but couldn't explain the contradicting evidence and instead told the detectives that the evidence was wrong.

"My lawyer's going to prove it," he told them. "You watch, you watch."

At some point he suggested the bullet could have exited Rubio's body and ricocheted into his trailer, bouncing off a wall before landing on the pillow.

A murder weapon was not recovered from the scene, but during the interview Montelongo made statements that indicated he had access to a gun days before the shooting.

Pictures of Montelongo covered in Rubio's blood was shown to jurors.

One of the photos showed a fine misting of blood on Montelongo's left shoulder that Bonds told jurors he believed was sprayed on the defendant at a "high velocity."

Rubio's older sister, Yvette, told jurors she saw her sister for the last time three days before the shooting. She said she believed her sister, who used drugs with Montelongo, was in an abusive relationship. She said her sister was no longer the happy, loving woman who was full of life when she began dating him.

"He killed her spirit," she said. "She was always sad. She was always worried."

She said her sister, who began using methamphetamine about a year before her death, was using more drugs while she dated Montelongo.

Yvette Rubio, who was currently serving a prison sentence for fraudulent use or possession of identifying information, said in the short time her sister dated Montelongo, Monica had to get new phones because he would break them.

Three days before her sister's murder, Monica spent the night at her apartment. She said her sister stayed with Montelongo, but would usually visit her apartment to use her shower.

She said she reluctantly drove her sister back to Montelongo's home.

"I walked her up to the gate and I was begging her not to stay (with Montelongo)," she said.

She was unable to convince her sister to return with her but Monica left her phone with her because she knew Montelongo would end up breaking it.

It was the last time she saw her sister.

Lubbock County District Attorney Sunshine Stanek told jurors in her closing argument that the overwhelming evidence against Montelongo showed that he killed Rubio in his trailer, hid the murder weapon as she bled out and only called 911 when he believed he got rid of any evidence that could incriminate him.

"We have no idea how long she bled out before he decided to call 911," she said.

However, she said investigators were able to swiftly collect evidence that disproved his story.

"Physical evidence does not lie," she told jurors. "People lie. That's the world we live in. People lie and make up stories -- no matter how ridiculous they may be -- and try to sell them to people like you."

She reminded them of the defendant's jail phone calls soon after his arrest, telling his family not to forget about him and that he was sorry. He also could be heard expressing frustration with a neighbor who provided police the video that ruined his story.

"These are not the words of an innocent man," Stanek said. "These are the words of a man who knows exactly what he did."

Montelongo's defense attorney waived a closing argument.

During the punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors called on a Lubbock County Detention Center sergeant who testified to Montelongo's disciplinary records while he's been held at the jail.

His most recent violation was reported Wednesday night when he was written up for "sparking", a method of using electric outlets to set fire to materials such as toilet paper, in his cell, which is in the jail's maximum security pod.

Montelongo, who is a member of the West Texas Tango Blast, had also been written up for fighting other inmates and getting tattoos while incarcerated.

One of the tattoos Montelongo got was an image of Rubio on his chest next to a clock.

A gang expert told jurors that he believed7 the tattoo was meant to symbolize "doing time" for killing Rubio.

"He is putting her up there and showing off," Prosecutor Traci Wiseley told jurors in her closing argument. "He's using her death as a trophy for when he goes to prison."

Prosecutors also presented Montelongo's criminal history, which included a conviction for robbery in 2014. He was initially placed on probation but it was revoked and he was sentenced to prison.

Wiseley told jurors that Montelongo deserved a lengthy prison sentence, saying the state had already given him a chance to improve his life with probation and he squandered it.

She said Montelongo's actions robbed Rubio of a chance to straighten out her life and get clean.

"The people who loved (Rubio) deserve justice," she said.

She said a life sentence also protects the community from Montelongo who has never shown remorse for killing someone he purportedly loved.

"Sometimes that is what is necessary to protect society," she told jurors.

Montelongo's attorney, Mark Snodgrass asked jurors tp show mercy on Montelongo and to hand down a sentence that would give his client a chance to become a contributing member of society.

"Justice has to be tempered with mercy," he said. "Mercy is what makes us human beings."

He said his client "didn't stand a chance" at escaping the life of drugs and crime that ensnared his parents.

Montelongo's father, Juan, told jurors that his son was essentially raised by his grandparents as he and his wife struggled with drug use. He said he'd missed out on his son's childhood because he was in and out of prison for years.

However, Snodgrass told jurors that his client has been taking steps while incarcerated to turn his life around.

A pastor who leads a jail ministry told jurors that Montelongo regularly attended Bible-based manhood classes. He described the defendant as respectful and eager to learn.

Snodgrass told jurors that sending Montelongo to prison for life solves nothing.

"An eye for an eye just leads to blindness," he said.

Stanek told jurors in her closing argument that Montelongo didn't deserve any mercy because he showed none to Rubio.

"This is not the day of chances," she said. "This is the day to pay for what he did."

After the trial, Stanek thanked the jury for their verdict. She also thanked the investigators whose efforts brought Montelongo to justice and provided closure for Rubio's family.

Snodgrass declined to comment after the trial.

However, while the evidence at trial overwhelmingly showed Montelongo killed Rubio, a motive for the slaying remains unknown.

"We don't know exactly what his motive for killing her was we don't know what led up to her shooting that morning," Wiseley said after the trial. "We do know he'd been aggressive with her in their relationship but that's all we could present to the jury."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Family mourns 'rainbow after a storm' as man sentenced for killing