Father texts his brother about 'big mistake' after allegedly stalking and killing his daughter

TOOELE, Utah (AP) – Prosecutors on Friday charged a Utah man with murder in the killing of his adult daughter, a Salt Lake City sheriff's deputy.

Hector Ramon Martinez-Ayala, 54, of Tooele, confessed in a text message to his brother that he had made “a big mistake” before fleeing the country and withdrawing money using his daughter's bank card, prosecutors said in court documents.

The victim was 25-year-old Marbella Martinez, said Tooele police spokesman Colbey Bentley.

Martinez began working as a correctional officer with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office in January. The agency honored her in a Facebook post last month, noting that her death was being investigated as “suspicious” by Tooele police.

She had been living with her father in Tooele, west of Salt Lake City, until her father's increasing texting, surveillance and stalking activities forced her to move to a hotel for a few days, court documents show.

Prosecutors allege the stalking continued for months and that the defendant's “text messages to the victim were more in the nature of a jealous lover than a father.” Martinez also found a bag of her underwear in his room, prosecutors said. Then in mid-July, while she was out of the country, he attached a tracking device to her vehicle and later used it to track her and a romantic lover in a hiking area, prosecutors said.

When she returned home on the morning of July 31, she was strangled by her father, investigators said. Cameras on the property were quickly disabled or turned off, but Martinez-Ayala left numerous digital footprints, including location data on his and his daughter's phones and a text message to his brother that afternoon, investigators said.

“My brother, you know how much I love you. I made a big mistake, an unforgivable sin. Now I am too scared and don't know what to do. I think I will never come back,” the message said, according to the indictment.

He flew first to California and then to Texas before his cellphone recordings stopped, prosecutors said. He was then filmed going through customs in an unfamiliar country using his brother's ID.

Martinez's body was found in her bedroom on August 1 after police were called for a welfare check.

In addition to the murder, Martinez-Ayala is accused of obstruction of justice, bank card theft and stalking, as well as identity theft.

No attorney for Martinez-Ayala is listed in Utah's online court records, and attempts to contact him through other means have been unsuccessful.

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