Sheriff: Undocumented immigrant admitted 2 Nevada slayings; gun used in 4

By Ken Ritter and Scott Sonner The Associated Press

6 years ago

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, of El Salvador, listens to his public defender and interpreter during his initial appearance in Carson City Justice Court, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, in Carson City, Nev. Martinez-Guzman was arraigned on 36 felonies including two dozen weapon charges. He’s a suspect in a series of four homicides earlier this month in Reno and south of Carson City in rural Gardnerville. Prosecutors say additional charges are pending. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, of El Salvador, is escorted into the courtroom for his initial appearance in Carson City Justice Court, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, in Carson City, Nev. Martinez-Guzman was arraigned on 36 felonies including two dozen weapon charges. He’s a suspect in a series of four homicides earlier this month in Reno and south of Carson City in rural Gardnerville. Prosecutors say additional charges are pending. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner).

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, top left, of El Salvador, listens to proceedings during his initial appearance in Carson City Justice Court, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, in Carson City, Nev. Martinez-Guzman was arraigned on 36 felonies including two dozen weapon charges. He’s a suspect in a series of four homicides earlier this month in Reno and south of Carson City in rural Gardnerville. Prosecutors say additional charges are pending. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong, left, talks with a detective in Carson City Justice Court on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, before Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, of El Salvador, was arraigned in Carson City Justice Court on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, on 36 felonies including two dozen weapon charges. He’s a suspect in a series of four homicides earlier this month in Reno and rural Gardnerville. Prosecutors say additional charges are pending. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

A makeshift memorial of several dozen bouquets and a candle are shown Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, outside the south Reno, Nev., home of Gerald David, 81, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, whose bodies were found inside on Jan. 16. Authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of being in the U.S. illegally in the deaths of the Davids and two other people over the past two weeks. (AP Photo/Michelle L. Price)

RENO, Nev. — A 19-year-old from El Salvador admitted killing a married couple in Nevada and used a handgun that he said he stole earlier from their Reno home to do it, according to a sheriff’s report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The report filed with a judge Thursday in Carson City says the gun is believed to be the weapon also used to kill two Nevada women in their homes in Gardnerville south of Carson City days earlier.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong released the declaration of probable cause Friday in response to a public records request from the AP.

It says Wilber Martinez-Guzman admitted using a .22-caliber revolver stolen previously from the home of Gerald and Sharon David in Reno to kill them on Jan. 16. The gun was recovered from a BMW in which authorities arrested Martinez-Guzman last Saturday in Carson City on a federal immigration charge.

He was charged Thursday with possessing weapons and selling jewelry belonging to some of the dead and is being held in the Carson City jail on $500,000 bail.

His newly appointed public defense attorney, Karin Kreizenbeck, did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.

The top prosecutors in neighboring Douglas and Washoe counties announced earlier Friday they have scheduled a news conference in Reno on Monday to discuss their plans for the prosecution of Martinez-Guzman. They said earlier he was the prime suspect in the four homicides over a one-week period.

Washoe County Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Harmon in Reno told AP Friday evening they would have no further comment until Monday.

Authorities say Martinez-Guzman is in the U.S. illegally, and the case has drawn intense national interest — including the attention of President Donald Trump. The president this week tweeted that the four killings in Nevada showed the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall then at the center of the federal government shutdown.