Jury visits apartment where Victoria Martens was killed

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The jury in the Fabian Gonzales trial saw the place Victoria Martens was killed Monday.

In an irregular move, the men and women who will decide Gonzales’ fate took their pursuit of justice out of the courtroom.

On Monday, prosecutors are still making their case that Gonzales created the danger that led to her death and then tried to cover it up by dismembering her.

Former APD officer Harold Sennett closed his eyes when prosecutors replayed his body-worn camera footage – showing him discovering 10-year-old Victoria Martens’ still-burning remains.

“Do you have a fire extinguisher? Do you have a fire extinguisher? beep – beep – beep.”

This is on the same day the jury physically walked into the bathroom where Victoria’s body was found, during a site visit to the apartment complex Monday morning.

“That was my assignment, was to get to the truth,” said Richard Lewis. 

Richard Lewis, a now-retired detective, who used to work cold cases for APD also took the stand. He reworked the entire Victoria Martens’ case.

“I can’t even put a scale on it. This is – I’ve never seen anything like it 40 years,” said Lewis. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

After going through everything, it was Lewis who had a new theory.

“And I started seeing something that I thought – uh – that uh – that uh – there might be somebody else involved,” said Lewis. 

He says a phone call between Jessica Kelley – the last known person with Victoria – and her incarcerated sister became critical to his investigation.

“It occurred – I believe around 6:09 p.m. on the day of the murder, so it was relatively close to what we thought the time of the murder might be, so we wanted to see what was said,” Lewis said. “We wanted to see what was being said, we believe from phone records that the phone call was made to Jessica Kelley and at the time she was inside apartment 808, so we thought that was significant. When we reviewed that phone call, we became aware it was very significant.”