TIERRA AMARILLA — A murder trial for a Rio Arriba County man accused of fatally shooting his neighbor in 2022, while he was awaiting trial in a rape case, got a shaky start Wednesday.

Few of the witnesses the state called to the stand in a Tierra Amarilla courthouse offered testimony that shed light on what happened that dark night in Hernández, when prosecutors allege Kevin Martinez killed Elmer Sanchez Jr. during a chaotic dispute involving several neighbors.

Martinez, 25, pleaded guilty last month in the rape case — in which he was accused of keeping a 14-year-old girl captive at his home for nearly two weeks in 2020, raping her daily and ultimately impregnating her.

His agreement with prosecutors gives a judge discretion to send him to prison for no less than seven years and no more

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