Suspected undocumented immigrant pawned jewelry after Northern Nevada killings, police say

RENO — The man who police said killed four people in Gardnerville and Reno this month also pawned several pieces of jewelry belonging to the victims, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Carson City.

Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, from El Salvador, remained in custody in the Carson City Jail, where he is being held on burglary, possession of stolen property and immigration charges.

Police said that murder charges against Martinez-Guzman in connection with the deaths of Gardnerville women Connie Koontz, 56, and Sophia Renken, 74, and Reno couple Gerald David, 81, and his wife, Sharon, 80, are expected to be filed Thursday or Friday.

According to the complaint, Martinez-Guzman pawned off several rings that belonged to his victims. The pawned stolen items included an engraved Elks ring that belonged to Gerald David, who went by Jerry, and has JD and 12-25-1974 carved into it, which the complaint said was sold for $126, and more than a dozen rings that belonged to Koontz.

Martinez-Guzman is scheduled to appear in Carson City Justice Court to be arraigned on the burglary and stolen property charges Thursday.

The investigation into the Northern Nevada killings was thrust into the national political spotlight by President Donald Trump this week. The president seized on the killings and the fact that Martinez-Guzman is suspected to be in the country illegally as evidence to support his proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico.

“Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country,” Trump tweeted Monday. “We need a powerful Wall!”

On Wednesday, immigration advocates and local law enforcement officials pushed back against using the case for political gains.

“His status with immigration is not a major contributing factor here,” Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said.

Furlong added that getting certain information about Martinez-Guzman’s immigration status has been difficult because of the government shutdown.

“Due to the furloughs, a lot of that information that we might normally have had we just don’t have right now,” Furlong said. “But they’re not significant to the investigation.”

Michael Kagan, law professor and director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic, said the fact that Martinez-Guzman is an immigrant “is basically a random fact.”

“It’s very racially explosive to say this case is how we should think about all immigrants,” Kagan said.

The killings are the latest crimes Trump has cited to bring attention to the wall, which is at the center of his battle with Democrats that has shut down parts of the federal government.

Since the start of his presidency, Trump has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants who were in the United States illegally, including the killing of a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier in 2015. Last month, he tweeted about allegations that a man from Mexico fatally shot a California police officer.

Although Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley said “we need to keep bad people from crossing over into our country,” he worries that the tragedy of the Nevada cases will be “overshadowed” by the politicizing of the case.

“I’m not a big fan of using their deaths, these two nice ladies that were just a nice part of the community, for any political gain on either side,” Coverley said in an interview “Not a big fan of that.”

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com 775-461-3820. Follow @ColtonLochhead.