TIERRA AMARILLA — Admitted rapist Kevin Martinez is now also a convicted killer.

A Rio Arriba County jury of eight men and four women deliberated for just over five hours before finding Martinez, 25, guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the 2022 fatal shooting of his neighbor, 36-year-old Elmer Sanchez Jr., in Hernández, a small community north of Española. At the time, Martinez was free while awaiting trial in a 2020 rape case in which he pleaded guilty in September.

Martinez’s pale face remained stoic as Judge Anastasia Martin read the jury’s verdict Friday, the rapid trembling of his square jaw the only indicator of emotion.

“I’m glad we got a conviction even if it’s not the one we wanted,” Sanchez’s mother, Yvette Romero, said tearfully after the verdict was read.

“It means he did m

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