Illegal Immigrant Slapped with 4 Life Sentences for Brutal Murders By Mark Lungariello
March 4, 2022 1:02pm Updated
In a deal to avoid facing the death penalty, a Salvadoran serial killer who was in the US illegally was slapped with consecutive life sentences after he admitted to four Nevada murders.
Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 23, worked as a landscaper for all four victims before he shot them during a deadly robbery spree in January 2019 — but prosecutors said his crimes weren’t motivated by a need for money.
He copped a plea, tying himself to the murders.
The killer was feeding his own sinister desires and made only $179 from the stolen items he pawned, Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson said at a sentencing hearing Thursday.
“This case is about him getting a thrill out of committing burglaries and killing,” Jackson said, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.
Martinez-Guzman was sentenced separately in the killings on Monday and Thursday and faces additional sentencing on burglary charges on Friday.
Ernesto Martinez-Guzman admitted to the murders to avoid facing the death penalty.
The case gained political attention when then-President Donald Trump cited it as a reason why the US needed to build a wall along its southern border. A daughter and granddaughter of an elderly couple killed by Martinez-Guzman attended Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address.
Illegal border crossings have continued to soar in the US, with a reported 220,000 migrants allegedly having evaded patrols between October and February, a recent report said.
Martinez-Guzman shot Jerry David, 81, and his wife, Sherri David, 80, using a .22-caliber gun he had stolen from David’s barn days earlier, and then pawned a ring and other items from the couple, who were well known in the local rodeo community. It was the Davids’ daughter and granddaughter who were Trump’s guests at his speech.
Ernesto Martinez-Guzman worked as a landscaper for all four victims before robbing and killing them.
During Martinez-Guzman’s rampage, he also killed Constance Koontz, 56, and Sophia Renken, 74, in Douglas County. Koontz’s daughter, Madison Koontz-Winkelman, called her mother’s killer a “heartless monster” during a heart-wrenching statement in court, the Gazette reported.
The killer stole personal items with little value, including a concert ticket stub, the daughter said. He later hocked 33 pieces of her mother’s jewelry for $1 each. A stolen Apple watch belonging to Koontz led police to the man, who had come to the US from El Salvador at 16 years old, the Gazette said.
“I will never forgive you. I hate you,” Koontz-Winkelman told Martinez- Guzman.
