Linda Martinez, a 55-year-old resident of Clyde, was sentenced to eight years in state prison on Thursday, January 5th, for the manslaughter of her husband, Rafael Martinez.
Linda pleaded guilty to the charge in October, 2022, nearly two years after the murder.
The incident occurred in October 2020, when Linda and her husband, Rafael, were involved in a domestic dispute at their home on Caroline Street. During the altercation, Linda shot her husband and subsequently called her nephew, Brandon Williams, and another accomplice, Mark Shannon, to assist in disposing of Rafael’s body. The group transported the body to Cayuga County and dumped it into the Seneca River, while throwing the gun used in the killing and Rafael’s cell phone into a pond in the Town of Savannah.
After Rafael was reported missing by family members, the New York State Major Crimes Unit began investigating the case. Through an interrogation and forensic analysis of a cell phone, evidence began to build against Linda and her accomplices. The State Police Underwater Recovery Team, assisted by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and CSX Railroad, recovered Rafael’s body from the Seneca River on October 28, 2020. The gun and cell phone have not yet been recovered.
Linda initially claimed that the shooting was an act of self-defense, stating that Rafael had previously been violent towards her. However, she was charged with Murder in the Second Degree and remanded to jail. Williams and Shannon were also charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second and Third Degrees, as well as Tampering with Physical Evidence. Williams was sentenced to 7 years in state prison in March 2022 and Shannon was sentenced to 6 years in September 2021.
Following her sentencing, Linda Martinez was remanded to the Wayne County Jail pending her transfer to state prison.
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