Karla Martinez, 10, Mom Ignacia (Yadira) Martinez, 38 ,beaten to death, sexually assaulted, Dad Arturo Martinez bludgeoned-survives, 9 & 4 yr old brothers not harmed/22 yr old Bryan Clay arrested, charged & pleads not guilty to murder, kidnapping, assault

LAS VEGAS – A 10-year-old girl was sexually assaulted before she died in a bludgeoning attack that also killed her mother and left her father with critical head injuries in a blood-splattered Las Vegas home, police said Thursday.
The discovery that fifth-grader Karla Martinez was sexually assaulted expands the investigation of the brutal attack, Las Vegas police Lt. Clinton Nichols said. Officers went to the home and found the bodies after the girl's 9-year-old brother arrived at school Monday saying that his mom and sister were dead. A 4-year-old boy was also found unharmed in the house.
No suspects have been identified, and Nichols asked for patience, saying rumors were complicating the investigation.
Although police said Monday that evidence didn't suggest an intruder was responsible for the attacks or that a suspect was on the loose, Nichols later said investigators hadn't been able to determine exactly what happened in the modest three-bedroom home, or when.
"We've ruled out no one. We are looking at every possibility," Nichols said.
Nichols said Thursday that investigators were being deliberately slow and methodical.
"We want to do everything right," he said. "This case needs to be solved -- the brutal nature of the attacks on a family in their own home."
Authorities found the girl and the mother, Ignacia Martinez, 38, beaten to death with a blunt instrument in separate bedrooms.
The father, Arturo Martinez, 39, was injured in the living room. The murder weapon has not been identified.
The bodies bore clear evidence of an attack with a blunt object, Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said. He classified the deaths as homicides.
Arturo Martinez remained hospitalized Thursday at University Medical Center in Las Vegas with what authorities initially described as a severe head injury. Police said they weren't immediately able to interview him because of his injuries.
The two boys were in protective custody with the Clark County Department of Family Services, where Nichols said child forensic counselors have spoken with the boys but police detectives had not.
"We're not going to push them," the police lieutenant said. "You can only imagine what they saw."
Next-door neighbor and family friend Mark Groenert on Thursday characterized Arturo Martinez as a hard-working electrician who coached boxing in his spare time, kept physically fit and sometimes had disputes with another neighbor about parking.
"There was an altercation Saturday night, Arturo came home really late and one of their trucks was parked in front of his driveway," Groenert told The Associated Press. "Arturo hit the horn. He just laid on it until somebody came out. They got into a yelling match."
A Spanish-speaking man who answered the door Thursday at the neighboring home declined immediate comment in English and did not respond later to a telephone message in Spanish.
Nichols said police were aware of what he characterized as an "ongoing conflict" with some neighbors, but said investigators found nothing that they believed precipitated the deadly attack.
Groenert said he used to enjoy tequila and carne asada in the Martinez backyard, and his own grandson sometimes played with the two boys next door.
He said he saw police going into the house on Monday and Arturo Martinez shuffling out the front door before collapsing into unconsciousness.
Groenert said he could tell from questions that police later asked him and his wife that investigators suspected a sex attack.
He said he couldn't believe Arturo Martinez would harm his family, and said he thought the attacker must have been someone from outside the house.
"Something happened. Somebody invaded his house," Groenert said. "Somebody's loose, and they just killed a child and a mother."

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Las Vegas Massacre Suspect Sexually Assaulted Three People, Cops Say

April 30, 2012
Las Vegas cops are trying to determine what triggered "savage" murder spree that included the sexual assault of two women and a child

Bryan Clay, 22, was arrested over the weekend for deaths of Ignacia "Yarida" Martinez and her 10-year old daughter. The mother and daughter were sexually assaulted before being bludgeoned to death in their Las Vegas home on April 15 or 16, police said.

The victims' husband and father, Arturo Martinez, was also bludgeoned and remains in critical condition.

"We believe this was a stranger, a random savage act," Lt. Ray Steiber of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police's homicide division said at a news conference. "I've been doing this 24 years and this is the case you hope you never see."

Officials discovered the deaths April 16 after the young girl's 9-year-old brother told school officials that his mother and sister were dead at home.

The child who reported the deaths and his 4-year-old brother were removed safely from the home.

Since then, authorities have been working through a forensics "nightmare" in a house where police said there was blood in every room.


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Clay was a person of interest in the family massacre, but police arrested him on Friday on an outstanding felony child abuse warrant. By Saturday, he was re-booked and charged for the double homicide of the family and a separate sexual assault of a 50-year-old woman in a nearby neighborhood.

While police say they are still piecing together the timeline of events, they believe that Clay sexually assaulted the 50-year-old woman on April 15. He allegedly approached her and then "forced her into a nearby desert area and violently sexually assaulted her and fled on foot," according to a news release.

The next day, the 9-year-old reported the deaths of his family members to school officials.

"We're talking about a 50-year-old woman who was attacked, brutally attacked, and she was sexually assaulted," Steiber said. "We're talking about a family who was in their home and unbeknownst to them, a savage intruder enters that home and attacks three people."

DNA evidence connected Clay to both crimes, police said. He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.

"They believe that this was a stranger, no way connected to the family or with the other victim," Officer Laura Meltzer told ABCNews.com today. "He is in custody and will not be getting back out."

Clay has been charged with four criminal counts for the attack on the 50-year-old woman and seven counts for the attack on the Martinez family.

The four counts for the attack on the woman are attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnap with intent to commit a felony and robbery.

The seven counts for the attack on the family are two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, sexual assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of sexual assault on a victim under the age of 14, attempted murder with a deadly weapon and burglary.

"Just because there has been an arrest, it does not mean that this is over. It's far from over," Meltzer said. "There's still a lot of investigating to do and a lot of analysis of evidence and information to be constructed."

Police have not said what Clay's motive could have been.

"This was a very dangerous person that, through countless hours of investigation and good police work, was taken into custody," Meltzer said.

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Mother Also Sexually Assaulted in Horrific Double Murder
Posted: Apr 30, 2012 12:34 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 30, 2012 3:12 PM EDT





LAS VEGAS -- An arrest report is revealing more details about the murder of a mother and her young daughter by a 22-year-old man. Police say evidence shows that Bryan Clay raped the woman and her 10-year-old. He is also accused of raping another woman earlier in the day.

Bryan Clay was arrested on Friday at his mother's home. According to the arrest report, Clay told police he drank some, "dark liquor," took some "Transformers" (Ecstasy or MDMA), smoked some "Sherm" (Sherman cigarettes dipped in PCP, and then fell asleep. Clay told police, he did not remember anything that happened on the night of Saturday, April 14.

The attack on the Martinez family was discovered on Monday, April 16 when a 9-year-old boy showed up at Hoggard Elementary School and told school officials that his mother and sister were dead. He also told them his father had two holes in his head, was acting strange and there was blood all over the home.

Double Murder Suspect Arrested

Police detail in the arrest report that when they arrived at the Martinez home they could hear a young child crying and a man, later identified as Arturo Martinez, came out the front entrance of the home covered in blood. Doctors at University Medical Center later reported that Martinez has two large fractures to the back of his head and has been unable to communicate with medical staff or police investigators.

Police say they found 38-year-old Ignacia "Yadira" Martinez in one bedroom and 10-year-old Karla Martinez in another bedroom. Both had severe head injuries and testing later revealed both has been sexually assaulted.

Clay is also accused of chasing, beating and raping a 50-year-old woman hours before the home invasion. Police say that woman's phone was allegedly stolen by Clay after the sexual assault and that helped lead them to him. Police used DNA evidence to connect the crimes.

After Clay was confronted about the attack on the Martinez family, the arrest report states that Clay made several references to how the detectives should have killed him instead of arresting him.

Clay is facing the following charges in the two separate crimes: murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, sexual assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault with a minor under 14, kidnapping, child abuse and neglect, robbery, and burglary.

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Family of Murdered Mother and Daughter Speak Out
Posted: Apr 30, 2012 2:32 PM EDT
Updated: May 01, 2012 11:00 AM EDTLAS VEGAS --

Family members of the mother and daughter who were brutally murdered say the family was trying to live the American Dream.

Arturo Martinez's brother and sister sent a letter to the public and are now talking about the tragedy that has fallen on their family.

Read the Martinez Family Letter
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Arturo Martinez's brother, Bruno Martinez says he is reaching out to the community as his brother lies in a coma, and his two nephews try to figure out why this happened to their family.

"I am asking for help. This family has been destroyed in a really bad way," Bruno Martinez said.

Over the past two weeks, the community has come to learn of the Martinez family. Arturo and Ignacia "Yadira" met while in college in Puebla, Mexico. They eventually made it to the United States and started a family.

The brutal attack on the family left Yadira and the oldest child, 10-year-old Karla, dead. Bruno Martinez said Arturo idolized his daughter and wife.

"She cared about the kids, about my brother. She was supporting him. They worked together all the time. She was loving to him all the time," Martinez said.

He says his brother has always been a fighter and he believes he will pull through but he is concerned about the trauma the two boys have suffered. The oldest boy, a 9-year-old, was the one who alerted school officials that his mother and sister were dead. Another child, a 4-year-old was found unharmed in the house.

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Father: 'I have to forgive' man who 'raped and killed daughter, 10, killed wife, and left him with brain damage in March home invasion beating'

Left for dead: Arturo Martinez was critically injured in the April 15 violence that claimed the lives of his wife Ignacia and daughter Karla

Day in court: Shown surrounded by bailiffs in this May 2 photo, Bryan Clay has been charged with murder, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and sexual assault in the horrific Las Vegas attacks

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OMG what an awful story! Those poor people and for those survivors, they'll never be the same. Horrible!

Las Vegas madman pleads not guilty in heinous claw hammer murders

A 22-year-old Las Vegas man pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to killing a woman and her 10-year-old daughter in a savage claw hammer attack last month.

Bryan Clay pummeled Ignacia (Yadira) Martinez, 38, and Karla Martinez, 10, to death with the tool at their northwest Las Vegas home during a booze, ecstasy and PCP-fuelled rampage on April 15, prosecutors said.

Both were sexually assaulted, prosecutors said, and Arturo Martinez, the husband and father of the family, was also bludgeoned in the head during the hom invasion attack, but survived.



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Bryan Devonte Clay Jr. Faces Death Penalty In Las Vegas Murder And Sexual Assault Case
06/07/12



LAS VEGAS -- Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for a 22-year-old man being held in the sexual assault and killing of a mother and daughter and the near-fatal hammer attack on their husband and father in their Las Vegas home.

Prosecutor Robert Daskas said a Clark County district attorney's office panel approved the move Wednesday.

Bryan Devonte Clay Jr. faces murder, kidnapping and other charges in the attacks on Ignacia "Yadira" Martinez, 10-year-old Karla Martinez and Arturo Martinez. Clay also is accused of trying to rape a woman hours before the April 15 attacks.

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Bryan Clay pleads not guilty in bloody Las Vegas slayings

A 22-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting and killing a Las Vegas mother and daughter and nearly killing their husband and father with a hammer has pleaded not guilty.

Bryan Devonte Clay Jr. appeared in court Wednesday morning to enter the plea on 10 felony charges, including murder, attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and burglary.

His trial is set for June 24, 2013. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

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OMG!!! He looks SO mean, I cannot imagine meeting him in daylight on a public street! What a monster!!!