Fugitive murder suspect who returned to Texas after nearly 4 years is given 70 years
A fugitive who was arrested when he returned to the United States after nearly four years was sentenced to 70 years in prison on Thursday following a murder conviction.
Raul Salazar Martinez, 48, was convicted of murder in connection with the shooting death of Ben Williams in 2013.
Williams, 25, who lived down the street from Martinez, was helping Martinez with a job clearing brush and limbs near an apartment building in the 1800 block of NW 20th Street on Sept. 6, 2013, according to Fort Worth police Detective Tom O’Brien.
Surveillance cameras in the area captured video of Martinez shooting Williams in the head, O’Brien said in a 2017 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“The family and friends of Ben Williams have waited six long years for justice,” said Charlie Boulware, Tarrant County’s lead prosecutor in this case. “We’re pleased the jury recognized the seriousness of this crime and sentenced the defendant accordingly.”
The motive behind the shooting remains unclear.
Martinez became a suspect in the 2013 homicide, but he fled to Mexico shortly after the shooting, Fort Worth police said.
He returned to the U.S., and was arrested on an unrelated charge in February 2017, and was serving a six-month sentence at a Houston federal prison under a different name — Raul Salar — and date of birth.
Martinez was due to be released Aug. 13, 2017, from the Houston Federal Detention Center for deportation, Fort Worth police have said.
Just days before that, Fort Worth police were notified that the CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) database had linked the federal inmate known as Raul Salar to physical evidence found at the scene of Williams’ fatal shooting.
Fort Worth police had no fingerprints on file to compare between the federal inmate and Martinez, but did have a copy of Martinez’s passport from a woman who had previously sold Martinez insurance.
On Aug. 8, 2017, O’Brien and Detective Jerry Cedillo visited the Houston federal detention center to interview Martinez and he confessed to killing Williams, O’Brien told the Star-Telegram.
Martinez was brought back to Fort Worth soon after that visit.
Martinez was in the Tarrant County Jail on Friday. In prior years Martinez was convicted on burglary charges in Dallas and Cameron counties, robbery charges out of Cameron County and was deported out of the United States in 1999, according to court documents.
This report contains information from Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 12:42 PM.
