Thread: Serial rapist, one of FBI’s most wanted, returned to Nashvil

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=50571

Serial rapist, one of FBI’s most wanted, returned to Nashville
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
June 22, 2006

The serial rapist who brought a wave of terror to Nashville almost 10 years ago has finally been returned here to face justice.

For the fist time in more than four years, Ruben Hernandez Martinez was back on U.S. soil Wednesday, thanks to an extradition agreement reached between the United Sates and Mexico after years of delicate negotiations.

Martinez, who has been one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives since May 2002, is a Mexican national.

That fact severely complicated the extradition process, Tennessee law enforcement officials said Wednesday at Nashville International Airport, where they gathered to meet the plane carrying Martinez and to take him directly into custody.

After finally reaching an agreement with Mexico on Tuesday, FBI officials accompanied Martinez — who has been in a Mexican jail since the FBI placed him on the most wanted list — to San Antonio. He was then flown to Nashville in a FBI private jet, where he was instantly taken into police custody.

Martinez has been charged with 26 counts of aggravated rape, among other charges, in connection with a series of armed home invasions and brutal sexual assaults that occurred between 1997 and 1998. At the time, Martinez was working as a day laborer in the Hickory Hollow and Edmondson Pike areas.

He allegedly cased his four victims while working on construction and landscaping jobs at or around their homes.

Police believe he fled to Mexico sometime in 1998.

“The message should be very clear: That regardless of where they chose to run, dangerous criminals who victimize Nashvillians will be pursued by the Metropolitan Police Department and its partners in the prosecutors’ offices and federal enforcement,” Nashville Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said at a press conference following the departure of Martinez, who was taken to the Davidson County Criminal Justice Center.

District Attorney Torry Johnson said he expects Martinez to appear in court “within a week to 10 days.”

“He’ll be arraigned and then we’ll move as quickly as we can to get to trial,” said Johnson, who also attended the press conference. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, so we’ll be ready to go.”

“The crimes alleged to have been committed by Ruben Martinez put this community in fear,” Unites States Attorney Jim Vines said. “I am grateful to the authorities in Mexico for understanding the seriousness of this matter.”

Authorities would not comment on whether Martinez, who has never had U.S. citizenship, was here legally during the time he worked in Nashville and allegedly committed the crimes.

US Praises Mexico For Extraditing Alleged Rapist
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-21-voa19.cfm

By VOA News
21 June 2006

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico has praised Mexican authorities for extraditing a man to the United States to face charges of rape and other crimes allegedly committed in the late 1990s.

The embassy says Mexican-born fugitive Ruben Hernandez Martinez was extradited to the U.S. Tuesday.

Martinez is accused of a series of home break-ins, sexual assaults and burglaries in Nashville, Tennessee (in southern United States) between 1997 and 1998. The former construction worker later fled to Mexico, but was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2002.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza says Martinez is an "exceptionally" dangerous criminal who will now have to account for the crimes he allegedly committed against the people of Tennessee.

Garza says the extradition of Martinez is an example of successful cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

The ambassador says Mexico has already extradited or deported 53 fugitives to the U.S. this year, and more will follow in the coming months.

Martinez has appeared on the FBI's list of "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives. He had appealed unsuccessfully to Mexican authorities to block his extradition.

Oh thank you Mexico, we are so lucky you are willing to cooperate with us and hand over monsters that came from your nation to rape and pillage in America.

Ooooo thank you so very much. How lucky we are that you are cooperating with us sometimes.

Jerks.

W

If he gets a sentence of more than five years, will that qualify him for the McKennedy path to citizenship?

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1017/NEWS

Former top 10 fugitive in Metro hands
Suspect to face 26 rape counts after four-year extradition campaign


By MICHAELA JACKSON
For the Tennessean

Published: Thursday, 06/22/06
A man accused of being a serial rapist who was an FBI Top Ten Fugitive landed in a Metro jail Wednesday after a four-year process to extradite him from Mexico.

Ruben Hernandez Martinez, 38, is accused of forcibly entering women's homes and sexually assaulting them at gun or knifepoint in 1997-98 while he was a construction worker in Nashville.

"This brings new meaning to the term 'long arm of the law,' " Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said.

The news was past welcome to Kelly Quinn, who moved to Las Vegas to get away just after she said she was raped. Authorities say she was the last victim in a six-month crime spree.

"I'm grateful that this day has finally come," Quinn said in a telephone interview. "When they said that he was in the air and going back to Nashville for prosecution, that was a phrase that I didn't think I was going to hear in this lifetime. I really didn't.

"I'm looking forward to seeing him prosecuted in a court of law in the U.S. as opposed to Mexico," she said. "If he's sitting there in a courtroom, facing the reality of everything that has happened, I would hope that he would show some kind of remorse."

"I would say that it is the absolute greatest fear and the greatest violation of a person," Quinn said. "You can violate someone's home, you can violate someone's car, but when you violate someone's person, it goes beyond any spectrum of words."

Quinn, now 40, said she was attacked the night of May 17, 1998, by two men who invaded her apartment and held her at knifepoint. Authorities say Martinez was one of them and his cohort was Luis Castanon. At trial, Castanon was convicted of several counts of aggravated rape and then sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to Lisa Naylor of the District Attorney's office.

He took the stand during his trial and implicated Martinez in the crimes, officials said.

Specifically, Martinez is charged with the November 1997 home invasion and attempted rape of a woman in her McMurray Drive condominium, the November 1997 home invasion and rape of a woman in her Edmonson Pike apartment, the March 1998 home invasion and rape of a woman in her Hickory Hollow-area apartment and the May 1998 home invasion and rape of Quinn in her Edmonson Pike apartment.

In all, he was charged by a Davidson County grand jury in 2002 with 26 counts of aggravated rape, four counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, one count of attempted rape and one count of fleeing the Nashville jurisdiction.

The flight charge brought in the FBI, according to Steve Richardson, who is in charge of the FBI's Nashville Violent Crimes Task Force. Martinez was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on May 1, 2002.

Within 24 hours of landing on the list, he was arrested without incident in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipias, Mexico. Since then, Martinez has been a prisoner in Mexico awaiting international extradition.

Authorities said Wednesday that Martinez was a Mexican national and in the U.S. illegally at the time of the crimes.

"The Mexican Government has worked closely with our government to make sure extraditions happen," U.S. Attorney Jim Vines said. "Four years may seem like a long time, but in the world of international relations, it's a relatively short time."

Martinez is now a state pre-trial prisoner and is being held in a Metro jail, said District Attorney Torry Johnson. His arraignment is expected to take place within 10 days, and his case will likely see trial within eight to 10 months.

"We've been waiting a long time," Johnson said. "We're ready to go."

Richardson called the process of extraditing Martinez a long road.

"Today that road ends," he said. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, and we hope that today the healing process can begin."

Quinn said she is well on her way.

"I do (think I'm more at peace now), and I think that's because of my faith in God," Quinn said. "I've prayed for God to help me forgive them, but I've also prayed for God himself to forgive them." •

Send the bills for the prison cost expenses to Vinnie scumbag Fox? Why should USA taxpayers pay for the room and board of these creeps?

I'd also like to see the USA government cut off any and all foreign aid to Mexico or any other country that encourages it's citizens to illegally enter the USA.

I'd also like to see the USA government cut off any and all foreign aid to Mexico or any other country that encourages it's citizens to illegally enter the USA.

Ya and forbid our businesses from folding up here and going there. Impossible but I can wish.

Mexico doesn't seem all that upset in cooperating with us as long as it's just the trash they no longer want to be responsible for. I just hope the guys here use electricity to full use on this guy.

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/news/20495.asp

Serial Rapist Appears In Court
Posted: 7/5/2006 11:04:00 AM
Updated: 7/5/2006 4:37:32 PM



It took nearly ten years, but a wanted serial rapist who terrorized Nashville during the 90's, appeared in front of a judge. Ruben Martinez (pictured on the right) faces more than 20 rape charges.

This man was on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. Martinez has been on that list since 2002. When he was finally caught in Mexico, it took three years ago to extradite him back to the U.S.

Martinez was in a Davidson County courtroom this morning to face dozens of charges involving rape, kidnapping and several home invasions.

Prosecutors say he terrorized a south Nashville neighborhood for nearly a year, victimizing at least four women. Martinez is accused of breaking into those women's homes and then raping them for hours.

Kelly Quinn says she's one of those victims. She moved to Las Vegas after she says she was attacked by Martinez to help forget about what happened.

"I'm a single mom so moving my son into a different city was a good goal for me and we were able to start over and do good things," said Quinn.

The judge is assigning a Spanish speaking public defender to Martinez. His trial is expected to begin soon.

Another Mexican scumbag we have to support for life.

Too bad he doesn't face the death penalty on all those counts. Innocent women will never be the same because this animal was free to break our immigration laws and reek havoc