Arturo Juarez Suarez

Case record

Background

Arturo Juarez Suarez was a ranch worker in Auburn, California. In July 1998, he lured the family of his estranged wife to a cattle ranch and killed her niece, nephew and two brothers, burying the bodies under a blackberry thicket. Authorities said he also raped his estranged wife's sister-in-law.

The offence

On the remote 160-acre horse and cattle ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, authorities said Jose Luis Martinez, 37; his children Jack, 5, and Arele, 3; and Martinez's younger brother Juan Manuel Martinez, 28, were murdered and buried in a common grave on the ranch where Suarez was employed as a seasonal worker.

The rape victim regained consciousness, untied herself and escaped from a trailer on the ranch. Authorities said Suarez tied her up, raped and beat her while her children played in a screen porch outside the trailer. When she regained consciousness, both Suarez and her children were gone.

A plan to kill the Martinez family emerged in the recorded description of events. Suarez revealed that he dug a hole to hide the bodies several days before the crimes. Court records showed that Suarez admitted that if he'd been given the opportunity, the children's mother would have joined the victims in their common grave.

Suarez led the Martinez brothers to a spot on the perimeter of the ranch where a blackberry thicket covered the terrain and the makeshift grave had been prepared. There, Jose Martinez was shot twice in the head and Juan Martinez three times in the head. Suarez initially told officers he'd taken the rifle "to shoot roosters or something" and that the two men were hit by "accident" during a struggle after they'd accused him of cheating on his wife, their sister. He also told detectives that it wasn't until after he'd shot the Martinez brothers that he dug the hole. Investigators said a gun shell casing had been found in the hole and told him: "It couldn't have been there if you had not already dug the hole."

After dragging the bodies of the two men into the grave, Suarez returned to his trailer and bound and beat the woman in front of her crying children. He denied raping her, but admitted cutting off her clothing with a pair of scissors "so if she got loose she wouldn't go out," according to documents.

Leaving the woman tied and taped to a chair, Suarez led the children, Arele and Jack, by the hand toward the grave, then hit them both repeatedly, either with a stick or a shovel, and tossed them in the hole atop their father and uncle, according to the documents. Suarez told detectives: "I don't know whether they were alive or dead." Subsequent autopsy results indicated that both children were alive when the hole was filled with dirt and had died of asphyxiation.

Suarez said he started back toward his trailer to get the woman he'd assaulted: "First I was going to take her to see the children .... And then I was going to kill her," according to the transcript of his videotaped statement. After Suarez discovered the woman was no longer where he'd left her, she had freed herself and managed to get to another house on the property, where residents had summoned sheriff's deputies. When Suarez spotted arriving patrol cars, he took cover on a hill and watched as deputies began looking for the missing men and children, according to his statements.

Searchers did not find the grave until the following morning. By then, Suarez had walked into Auburn, caught a ride with a motorist into Sacramento, then headed south to a relative's home in Wilmington, near Long Beach. Suarez was captured there on July 15.

Investigation

Authorities were called after the 30-year-old alleged rape victim regained consciousness, untied herself and escaped from a trailer on the ranch. The bodies of her husband Jose Luis Martinez, 37; their children Jack, 5, and Arele, 3; and Martinez's younger brother Juan Manuel Martinez, 28, were discovered in a shallow grave the following day.

The trial moved from Placer County to Napa County because of publicity.

The defense challenged the validity of the Spanish-to-English translation of Suarez's statements.

Suarez's taped confession was described as damning. In his videotaped statement to two Placer County sheriff's detectives, Suarez described digging a hole to hide the bodies and plans regarding killing the woman.

Trial

Suarez was charged with rape of a Galt woman and the murders of four members of her family. The trial for Arturo Juarez Suarez, a 31-year-old Auburn ranch hand charged with the rape of a Galt woman and the murders of four members of her family, was set to begin on October 12.

In April 2001, a jury convicted Arturo Juarez Suarez of sexually assaulting a Galt woman and slaying four members of her family in July of 1998. The jury found him guilty of multiple murder counts and rape by the Napa County jury, qualifying Suarez for the death penalty. The jury returned April 30 for the death penalty phase. The only other possible sentence described was life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Suarez confessed to the killings shortly after his arrest and at trial accepted responsibility for all four deaths and the kidnap and beating of the woman. However, his attorneys denied he was guilty of rape or premeditation in the killings.

The defense contended that part of the transcript from Suarez's videotaped statement was "prejudicially flawed" because it did not accurately reflect the words that were actually spoken.

Sentencing

Suarez was sentenced to death on October 5, 2001.

People

• Arturo Juarez Suarez — defendant; Auburn ranch hand.
• Galt woman (wife of Jose Luis Martinez) — alleged rape victim; wife in the family killed in July 1998; 30-year-old at the time she regained consciousness.
• Maria Isabela — Suarez's estranged wife; resided in Mexico with their daughter.
• Jose Luis Martinez, 37 — victim; Galt landscaper; husband of the alleged rape victim.
• Jack, 5 — victim; child of Jose Luis Martinez.
• Arele, 3 — victim; child of Jose Luis Martinez.
• Juan Manuel Martinez, 28 — victim; Martinez's younger brother.
• Juan Manuel Martinez (also referred to as "Juan") — victim shot in the head; brother of Jose Luis Martinez.
• Sheriff's detectives (two Placer County sheriff's detectives) — interviewed Suarez for the videotaped statement.

Other details

Suarez was described as a seasonal worker. In July 1998, he had lived for 3 or 4 years in a trailer parked in an enclosed yard at the sprawling Parnell horse and cattle ranch off Mt. Vernon Road in the Sierra foothills.

Although estranged from his wife Maria Isabela and their daughter, who resided in Mexico, Suarez remained in touch with his wife's brothers, Jose Luis Martinez and Juan Manuel Martinez, along with Jose's family, consisting of Jose's wife and two children, who lived in Galt.

Suarez's recorded statements described friction between Suarez and the Martinez family, including that they didn't "accept" him as part of the family and that he didn't like the way they treated him. His statements described resentment leading to a plan to kill them all.

Suarez described digging a hole large enough to hold five bodies, which he said he nervously accomplished in about 3 hours on the Monday or Tuesday before the Sunday of the killings.

A week earlier, Martinez had agreed to pick up Suarez in his car and take him back to the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento, where Suarez was to renew his immigration documents.

On the Sunday of the killings, Jose Martinez and his wife arrived in Auburn with their son Jack, 5, and daughter Arele, 3, along with Jose's brother Juan, for a prearranged visit with Suarez.

Suarez was captured on July 15 at a relative's home in Wilmington, near Long Beach.