Jose Manuel Guzman sentenced to 38 years in prison for murdering his sister

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – The case of the Canutillo man who murdered his sister in 2022 is closed, El Paso County District Attorney Bill Hicks announced today.

On February 2, 2022, Jose Manuel Guzman murdered his estranged sister, who became his lover, because he suspected she was having a romantic relationship with another man.

Karla Marciela Marroquin Chavez de Ortiz was given up for adoption immediately after birth. She grew up in Guatemala and was later smuggled into the United States by Guzman along with her 12-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son, Hicks said.

Guzman, Marroquin and the children lived in an apartment near Guzman's mother – Marroquin's biological mother – in Canutillo.

A romantic relationship developed between the two before Guzman suspected that Marroquin was seeing someone else and beat her to death with a baseball bat and a large handheld massager.

Guzman's ex-girlfriend, who says she was with him from about 2016 to 2018, spoke to ABC-7 and asked to remain anonymous for her own safety. She said she was also a victim of his violence.

“He started punching me. I was very small at the time, quite petite, so it was pretty hard to defend myself against a muscular guy,” said the ex-girlfriend. “The next day (Guzman) apologized and acted like nothing had happened, of course, like in any toxic relationship. He said he loved me. He didn't want to lose me. I believed him.”

She also said Guzman's family did nothing to stop his behavior.

“I have a girlfriend right now who still talks to Jose a lot, and she also stated to me that his family is very protective of him and that they don't think anything he did was wrong.”

District Attorney Hicks pointed out that by negotiating a settlement, the state can control the outcome of the case and ensure that justice is done.