Alicia Martinez Confirmed Dead UPDATE:Timothy Romero Guilty First-Degree Murder and Francesca Pagliasotti Guilty As Accessory To Murder

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10-26-2010


DENVER - Hundreds gathered on Tuesday night to remember a 16-year-old girl who was brutally murdered inside a North Denver home.

All along, family and friends suspected the body found in a home along the 4100 block of Decatur Street on Monday was the body of Alicia Martinez; a 16-year-old who disappeared Friday night.

Tuesday afternoon, the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed their suspicion.

Martinez was last seen before she went to a party on Friday night, according to Denver Police. They say her body was found in the same neighborhood where she was last seen alive.

9Wants to Know has learned the body was severely dismembered. An odontologist made positive identification using dental records

Martinez's death has been ruled a homicide, according to authorities. The medical examiner has not released the cause of death.

Officers arrested 26-year-old Edward Timothy Romero for investigation of first-degree murder. He's being held at the Denver County Jail.

Denver Police say they started investigating the disappearance Martinez on Sunday and that is when they identified Romero as a suspect.

"Mr. Romero was arrested without incident and as far as I know [he] is cooperating with the investigation," Det. John White with Denver Police said.

Martinez's family says Alicia did not know Romero. They say she went to a birthday party at his home with some friends before she disappeared.

"It doesn't make sense," Michael Martinez, Alicia's brother said. "It's not like her to go out with people she doesn't know."
Romero's picture is not being released pending further investigation.
"I hope he gets what he deserves," Martinez said.

9Wants to Know continues to investigate new information in this case. If you have a tip for the investigators, e-mail [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or call 303-871-1432.

02/04/2013



Edward Timothy Romero is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Alicia Martinez.

A Denver District Court jury, which began deliberating late Friday afternoon, announced its verdict in the October 2010 murder just before noon Monday.

Romero, 28, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He faces a mandatory term of life in prison when he is sentenced on March 4.

Jurors declined to talk with members of the media after the verdict. But a group of them sought out Alicia Martinez's large extended family, most of whom had been at the trial for each of its 10 days.

In the jury assembly room on the first floor of the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse, jurors and family members hugged and cried together, and Alicia Martinez's family thanked them for their verdict.

For two weeks, the jury had listened to testimony in what was easily one of Denver's most grisly crimes in recent memory.

On an October Friday in 2010, 16-year-old Alicia Martinez, who lived with her father, went to spend the weekend with her mother. On Friday night, a friend of her mother took Alicia to a party in the garage of the home of Edward Romero. As the party broke up, that friend took off with a man, leaving the high school sophomore alone with Romero.

During the trial, Romero's longtime girlfriend testified that later that night, when she returned to the home where she and Romero lived with their two children, he took her to the garage and showed her Alicia's body. That girlfriend, Francesca Pagliosotti, testified that Romero forced her to help as he cut up Alicia's body, even putting parts of it in a blender and flushing other parts down the toilet.

Pagliosotti is serving a 10-year sentence for her role in trying to cover up the crime.

In a case in which there was little doubt about who killed Alicia, Romero's defense turned on his state of mind at the time of the crime.

His defense attorneys argued that he had long suffered from mental illness that caused temporary "blackouts" and that when the blackouts ended, Romero had no memory of what he had done during them.

After the verdict, Alicia's family said they agreed with prosecutors who charged Romero "was faking."

Alicia's father, stepmother, aunts, uncles, her brother and friends stayed at the courthouse after the verdict to publicly thank prosecutors, the judge, jury and everyone who they said helped bring justice for Alicia.

And they wanted to talk about the teenager to refute some testimony that created the impression she was "a party girl."

Alicia was a good student who sang in church choirs, loved to dance, loved children and wanted to be a doctor, said her former stepmother, Antoinette Paniagua, after the verdict. And she was adored by her father, who had raised her from the time she was 4 years old.

"He was the best dad," Loretta Briones said of Alicia's father, Jesus Paniagua, her long-time neighbor.

"He just did everything with her. He went on all her school trips, even her friends at school all knew him."

When her class at Kipp Denver Collegiate High School visited Harvard and Stanford universities' campuses, Paniagua went with them, Briones said. He even chaperoned her school dances.

Alicia would have graduated from high school this spring. Saturday would have been her 19th birthday, and Paniagua said he'll observe it as he has each birthday since she died: "Pray the Rosary and then go to the cemetery."

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The girlfriend of the man accused of killing and dismembering 16-year-old Alicia Martinez in 2010 was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for helping him, the Denver District Attorney reported.

Francesca Pagliasotti was found guilty of accessory to murder in March.

Pagliasotti's attorneys argued that years of domestic abuse at the hands of alleged killer Timothy Romero made her afraid to report Martinez' death to authorities.

Instead, she helped him clean the garage where Martinez was shot to death and assisted him in cutting up her body.

Two children of Pagliasotti and Romero, as well as Romero's mother, were in the home as the dismemberment took place.


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OMG what a grizzly case! I'm so glad he'll be locked up for life, he looks like a monster and the gf deserves the ten years she got and should be glad it wasn't longer. MOO.