Jury Convicts Security Guard After Prosecutors Charged Him For Beheading Woman

A jury convicted a security guard of first-degree murder Thursday after police in southwest Colorado found a decapitated woman’s severed hand in his pocket, according to reports.

Solomon Martinez, 27, was declared guilty of “first-degree murder after deliberation, tampering with a deceased human body, and abuse of a corpse” — each charge a felony — after a 14-day trial, according to the Pueblo District Attorney’s Office. The court sentenced Martinez to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the murder of the victim, identified by the office as Renee Portillos.

The Pueblo Police Department said its officers arrested Martinez for first-degree murder after they found a dead woman’s body in Fountain Creek on Jan. 10, 2024, in what already was the fourth homicide in the city that year, according to police.

Martinez, who worked for a private security company, had the woman’s hand in his coat pocket when the police arrested him, according to the Pueblo chieftain.

Martinez’s roommate and the roommate’s friend volunteered information to the police that led to Martinez’s arrest, according to the outlet. Both witnesses told the police that a bloodstained Martinez had asked them to help dispose of the body, and one of them admitted to having severed a hand and part of an arm from the body which, the witness claimed, was already decapitated at the time, according to the outlet. (RELATED: Jury Convicts Man Of Cutting Victim’s Head Off, Playing Soccer With It)

The prosecution argued that Martinez committed the murder “because he wanted to” and “for his own pleasure,” the outlet reported. Martinez paid his 47-year-old victim for sex before shooting her in the head and carrying out his “life-long” urge to behead someone, the prosecution told the court, according to KRDO 13.

Investigators found Portillo’s DNA and a condom with Martinez’s DNA in his vehicle, the prosecution added, according to the Pueblo chieftain. Martinez also made phone calls from jail to his mother in which he confessed to the crime and blamed his family for “making him a monster,” the prosecution reportedly said.

Martinez’s public defender reportedly told the court that her client picked up Portillos after she offered him sex in exchange for money and also asked him to help find her son. The defense also implied that in the jail phone calls, Martinez was only revealing to his parents that he had concealed his necrophilic desires his entire life, according to the Pueblo chieftain.

The defense admitted that Martinez might be guilty of tampering with the body but sought to shift the case onto one of the witnesses who reported finding the body to the police, the outlet reported.

The defense also argued that Portillos shot herself under the influence of fentanyl, the Pueblo County D.A.’s Office said.

“This verdict is a testament to the hard work and dedication of law enforcement, our prosecution team, and the community. The District Attorney’s Office remains committed to seeking justice for all victims and holding perpetrators accountable for their actions,” District Attorney Kala Beauvais said.

Pueblo is rated the 14th most dangerous city in the U.S., according to a study by the personal finance website MoneyGeek. It was the 11th most dangerous in 2023, the Denver Gazette reported, citing MoneyGeek.

Residents on the city’s east side complained to KOAA News5 in August 2024 that crime there had spiraled beyond control.

Mayor Heather Graham and other city and county officials held a closed-door meeting Feb. 5 over concerns that migrant crime could spill into the city from neighboring areas, KRDO 13 reported.

Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero said Jan. 23 that his office would cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s efforts to arrest criminals but would not participate in round-up operations of people solely because of their immigration status.