{"id":39150,"date":"2022-08-02T17:04:40","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T23:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-convicted-in-death-and-dismemberment-of-new-mexico-girl\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:48:11","slug":"man-convicted-in-death-and-dismemberment-of-new-mexico-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-convicted-in-death-and-dismemberment-of-new-mexico-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted in death and dismemberment of New Mexico girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fabian
Fabian Gonzales faces up to 43\u00bd years in prison the 2016 death of an Albuquerque girl who was strangled, dismembered and set on fire in the bathtub of her mother\u2019s apartment on her 10th birthday. (The Associated Press)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 A man was convicted Monday in the 2016 death of an Albuquerque girl who was strangled, dismembered and set on fire in the bathtub of her mother\u2019s apartment on her 10th birthday.<\/p>\n

The jury deliberated less than four hours before returning with guilty verdicts on all charges Fabian Gonzales faced in the death of Victoria Martens. He was charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to tamper with evidence.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Gonzales faces up to 43\u00bd years in prison when he is sentenced.<\/p>\n

Gonzales, now 37, had moved into the girl\u2019s mother\u2019s apartment a month before the girl\u2019s death on Aug. 23, 2016. Prosecutors during the trial argued that although Gonzales didn\u2019t kill Victoria, he set in motion a series of events that created a dangerous environment that ultimately led to the girl\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Gonzales was also accused of helping his cousin, Jessica Kelley, dismember the girl, set her remains on fire and clean the crime scene in an attempt to conceal the death.<\/p>\n

Kelley, 37, testified that she was high on methamphetamine at the time. She reached a plea agreement with prosecutors on charges that included reckless child abuse resulting in death in exchange for testifying at Gonzales\u2019 trial. She was sentenced earlier this year to 44 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle
Michelle Martens, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of intentional child abuse resulting in the death of her daughter, Victoria Martens. She is expected to get 12 to 15 years in prison. (The Associated Press)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Victoria
Victoria Martens died at age 10.<\/span>Albuquerque Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The girl\u2019s mother, Michelle Martens, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of intentional child abuse resulting in death in a 2018 plea agreement. Her sentencing was delayed until the conclusion of Gonzales\u2019 trial and prosecutors have said she is expected to get 12 to 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n

During the investigation, police determined that Martens and Gonzales were not home when Victoria was killed and arrived later that night.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyers tried but failed to convince jurors that Kelley was solely responsible for the girl\u2019s death and dismemberment. Gonzales had allowed Kelley to stay at the Martens\u2019 apartment shortly after Kelley was released from prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell you, this is not a complicated case, it\u2019s actually fairly easy to solve. But emotion can overwhelm that,\u201d Stephen Aarons, Gonzales\u2019 attorney, said in his closing argument. \u201cThere is an urge to flush anyone and everyone remotely connected down the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aarons said the verdict will be appealed.<\/p>\n

Gonzales tested positive for COVID-19 last week and appeared virtually at his trial for two days.<\/p>\n

He returned Monday to hear the verdict from a plexiglass box inside the courtroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10-yer-old\u2019s mother pleaded guilty in 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84235,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39150\/revisions\/84235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39150"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}