Thread: Police Arrested An Illegal | Connie Koontz, Sophia Renken, Jerry David, Sherri David

Police Say They've Arrested An Illegal Alien In Connection With Four Murders In Nevada




BRITTANY M. HUGHES |


JANUARY 21, 2019





A previously arrested illegal alien in Nevada was just arrested in connection with four grisly murders that occurred over the past two weeks, police say.

According to the Nevada Independent, Wilbur Ernesto Martinez Guzman, who’s either 19 or 20 years old, was taken into custody Saturday afternoon in Washoe County on suspicion of burglary, possession of stolen property and immigration violations.

Now, the sheriff’s department is saying authorities have also linked Guzman to four Reno-area killings.

The murder spree started in Gardnerville, where Connie Koontz, 56, was found murdered in her home where she lived alone on January 10. Just a few miles down the road, Sophia Renken, 74, was also found dead in her home on January 13. Two days later, on January 15, 81-year-old Gerald David and 80-year-old Sharon David were found dead inside their South Reno home some 50 miles away from the first two crime scenes.

Guzman, who police say they'd been surveilling as a person of interest in the case, was arrested after immigration officials told local law enforcement that he was in the country illegally and could be taken into custody based on immigration violations.

While little is known about Guzman’s criminal history, his presence in the ICE immigration database suggests he’s been arrested at least once, even if only for immigration violations.

After making the arrest, police obtained search warrants for Guzman's apartment and his car. Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam now says that based on the evidence they found, authorities have linked Guzman to all four killings, which had prompted FBI involvement and spurred an increase in local gun sales.

“At this stage in the investigation, we feel confident we have the evidence that will link him to all four homicides,” Balaam said during a press conference Sunday.

According to local reports, Guzman is being held in the Carson City Detention Center and is under 24-hour watch. Police say they plan to formally charge Guzman with the murders later this week.


https://www.mrctv.org/blog/police-sa...murders-nevada

Nevada murder spree victims’ families to speak at Martinez-Guzman sentencing hearing



Siobhan McAndrew

Reno Gazette Journal



The events of a killing spree that rocked Northern Nevada over six days in January 2019 will be condensed to three days in three courtrooms starting Monday.

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, an immigrant from El Salvador, will be sentenced for the murders of Gerald and Sharon David, Constance Koontz and Sophia Renken on Monday and Thursday in Washoe and Douglas counties. He will also face sentencing for burglary and weapons charges in both courtrooms. On Friday he will be sentenced for burglary and property crimes in Carson City.

Martinez-Guzman pled guilty in October to the murders, thereby taking the death penalty off the table. He is expected to receive life sentences for the four murders.

The first hearing begins at 9 a.m. Monday in the courtroom of Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer.

Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks said Monday will be a day he and his office have prepared for for the last three years amid mountains of evidence.

Beloved Reno Rodeo couple, Sherri and Jerry David, remembered for generosity, kindness'The pain doesn't go away,' says daughter of Connie Koontz, who was murdered 3 years agoSophia Renken was a tough and independent 'Cookie' who drove fast, gave generously



Until five months ago, the DA's office was building their case for a death-penalty trial.
But it's the victim statements that will come before the sentences are handed down in all three courtrooms that will be the most emotional.

"I know they have been working on them," Hicks said on Friday afternoon of the families of the four victims who are expected to speak at the hearings.



"In tragic cases like this I can't even fathom what they are going through," Hicks said.
Hicks said humanizing the four victims is one of the most important parts to the conclusion of this legal case.

Martinez-Guzman is now 23, and has been held without bail in the Washoe County Jail.



He was 20 when he was arrested in Carson City.

Over the months that followed, detectives from multiple law enforcement agencies documented how Martinez-Guzman stole a .22-caliber handgun from the Davids' southwest Reno home on Jan. 4, 2019, and shot and killed Koontz, 56, and Sophia Renken, 74, in separate attacks in their Gardnerville homes several days later. He returned to the Davids' house to rob and kill them on Jan 15.

Gerald David, 81, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were prominent in the Reno Rodeo Association and had employed Martinez-Guzman as a landscaper the summer before.

Dig deeper: How two Douglas County deputies tracked down the suspect in four Northern Nevada murders

The Davids were married 52 years. During their memorial service on Feb. 1, 2019, family and friends remembered the couple as stepping up when anyone needed anything.

Martinez-Guzman’s first victim was Koontz. The 56-year-old mother was killed on Jan. 10, 2019, just days before her birthday.

Koontz's daughter, Madison, has shared with the RGJ how painful the loss of her mother has been.

"It's unbearable," she told the RGJ a month after her mom was found at home dead from a single gunshot to her head.



Her daughter fears the thought of someday getting married without her mother. She thinks about the trips they won’t take together.

“I’m broken forever ... she was not only my mother … but my best friend in the entire world.”

Renken, 74, was killed at her home a few blocks away on Jan. 13, 2019. She was shot in the face with a .22 caliber gun in the hallway of her home and then shot three more times as she tried to flee.

Her family called her Cookie, a nickname that stuck from when she was a child, and her parents owned a Dutch bakery. She would hand out free cookies to customers.

After her murder, her family remembered her as the aunt who loved to spoil her niece and nephew.

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2022/...rs/6929948001/

They gave him a job.

He went back to one of the homes and stole from them and their guns.

Give them nothing! Not a job, not a rental, not a morsel of food.

Get them off our soil.

Move this article to the new Americans Killed by Illegals section.