Posted on 08/20/2002 8:24:31 AM PDT by Pat Bateman
Man gets 40 years in lingerie stabbing death
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer
Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - A food court worker who stabbed security guard Corina Martinez 40 times after she discovered him wearing women's lingerie was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutor Geanne Moroye said Martinez, 59, was a hard-working mother of six children who was "killed in a brutal and heinous manner and then dumped in a Dumpster."
"She died so Michael Nunez could keep his horrible little secret," Moroye said.
The lawyer asked Judge Kenneth Barnhill to sentence Nunez, 30, to a year for each stab wound.
Martinez was killed early Dec. 9, 2000, when she responded to a call about a leak in the Subway shop in the food court at 1600 California St. Nunez was opening the sandwich store for business that morning. When Martinez found Nunez, who was changing out of the lingerie, Nunez killed her.
Testimony at Nunez's June trial showed that he had secretly dressed in lingerie for 15 years. He lived at home with his parents and kept the secret from them. The jury convicted Nunez, who had no prior criminal record, of second-degree murder.
Barnhill called the case the "saddest I've ever seen."
Enrique Garcia, a son of the victim, said his mother was a "good person" who was also his "best friend."
"Lord have mercy on you," Garcia said to Nunez. "My mother didn't have a chance."
Nunez apologized, his eyes brimming with tears as he spoke to Martinez's family.
"I apologize to the family," Nunez said. "I know I messed up bad. I hope you guys forgive me for what I did. I know I hurt a lot of people. I'm sorry; it was a mistake." Nunez had worked six days a week for seven years at the Subway and had never taken a vacation. He was considered an exemplary employee, said Fernando Freyre, Nunez's lawyer.
Angelina Garcia, one of Martinez's daughters, told Nunez she felt sorry for his family.
"What you did was take more than one life away," she said. "You killed a lot more than one person."
Wearing the lingerie was weird, but man, the above proves he was insane!
Was the lingerie the weapon or the victim?
You can have my lingerie when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
And there was a guy standing there in some lingerie, and I was like weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Disgustingly amazing!
Profile of a serial killer ...
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