EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2024 murder of her husband after she found out that he was having an affair.
As KTSM previously reported, 54-year-old Luz Elena Martinez shot and killed her husband, 47-year-old Jose Luis Avalos Reyes, in 2024, two days before Christmas, in South-Central El Paso.
Luz Elena Martinez, 54 (El Paso Police Department)
Docs: Woman killed husband after finding out he was having affair
According to El Paso County court records, Martinez pleaded guilty on March 13. She received 749 days of jail credit.
Court documents stated that on Wednesday, Dec. 27, officers responded to a residential area in South-Central El Paso after Martinez called 911 to report she had shot and killed her husband.
Court documents said Martinez found out that Reyes was having an affair, and she hired a private investigator to follow him and hired a divorce lawyer as well.
Evidence at the scene indicated that Reyes was lying on the bed when Martinez allegedly shot him at close range.
Officers also saw a knife positioned in Reyes’ left hand, which was later discovered to be his non-dominant hand, according to court documents.
Martinez claimed she had been raped, and a sexual assault evidence collection kit was performed by a sexual assault nurse examiner. Martinez told the examiner, “At one point, he came at me with the knife, so I shot him, then he stood up with the knife, and I shot him again.”
Martinez was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force on March 11, along the 5700 block of Alameda on a warrant for murder, according to the El Paso Police.
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