SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 25, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Convicted murderer and kidnapper Alberto Carreto-Morales has been sentenced for the 2022 murder of Cesar Martinez and the kidnapping of a second victim.
Carreto-Morales, 26, was sentenced Monday to 15 years to life for first-degree felony murder and 15 years to life for first-degree felony kidnapping, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday.
The sentences will be served consecutively.
The crimes
On Feb. 26, 2022, Carreto-Morales and co-defendant Raul Jaimes Cortez met Martinez, 37, for the first time in an apartment parking lot in West Valley City and asked him if he could give them a ride to Cortez’s apartment in Magna.
Martinez gave them a ride, then spent some time with the two men in the parking lot outside Cortez’s apartment, according to the district attorney’s office.
“When Mr. Martinez was getting ready to leave, Mr. Carreto-Morales told Mr. Cortez he wanted to rob the victim. Mr. Martinez had been drinking, so the co-defendants told him they could give him a ride home in his truck, and he allowed them to do so.
“However, while the three men were driving in the truck, the defendant put a metal wire around Mr. Martinez’s neck and stabbed him multiple times. When Mr. Martinez opened the door to escape, the defendant pushed him out.”
On March 13, 16 days later, the same two men allegedly kidnapped and robbed another person in Park City, forcing the victim to drive to an ATM and pull out money.
Carreto-Morales was convicted in that case, but Cortez’s case continues to be an active prosecution, so his guilt or innocence have not been determined.
“This vicious murder of a U.S. veteran who served multiple tours in the Middle East left many in our community shocked,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill in the news release.
“We hope the defendant’s significant sentence will help Mr. Martinez’s family and our community begin to heal.
“We thank our prosecutors, Rick Pehrson and Jennifer Zeleny, and our support staff for their dedication to this case. We appreciate the hard work of detectives at the West Jordan Police Department that made this prosecution possible.”
