Utah sheriff’s deputy stalked and killed by her father, prosecutors say
Prosecutors charged a Utah man with murder Friday, alleging he killed his adult daughter, a Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputy.
TOOELE, Utah — Prosecutors charged a Utah man with murder Friday, alleging he killed his adult daughter, a Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputy.
Hector Ramon Martinez-Ayala, 54, of Tooele, confessed in a text message to his brother to making “a big mistake” before fleeing the country and using his daughter’s bank card to withdraw money, prosecutors said in court documents.
The victim was Marbella Martinez, 25, said Tooele Police spokesman Colbey Bentley.
Martinez had started working as a corrections officer with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office in January. The department had memorialized her in a Facebook post Thursday, noting her death was being investigated as “suspicious” by Tooele police.
She had lived with her father in Tooele, west of Salt Lake City, until her father’s escalating series of obsessive texting, surveillance and stalking drove her to move into a hotel for a few days, according to court documents.
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