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The mother of a New Mexico teen charged with murder is accused of helping dump the victim’s cell phone and tampering with other evidence, according to a criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
Rachel Martinez, 45, faces two counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of conspiracy to tamper with evidence, according to the complaint, which details the investigation of the murder of Samuel Cordero, 60.
Judah Trujillo was arrested and charged with murder last September, according to KRQE News. Police allege he shot and killed Cordero in a local park near where Trujillo lived with his mother and stepfather on Aug. 10, 2022. Trujillo was 16 at the time of the incident.
According to the complaint, Cordero’s body was found at 4:35 a.m., with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
As police investigated the death, Cordero’s mother reported him missing after he didn’t return home from work, police said. Cordero’s sister, the complaint said, called his cell phone, which was answered by a man who said he found it on the street in a plastic bag.
Police said they observed surveillance footage in which a gunshot is heard, followed by a hooded figure running toward Trujillo’s residence at 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 10. Around 20 minutes later, a car is seen backing out of the driveway of the residence.
On Sept. 27, authorities obtained an arrest warrant for Trujillo after cell phone data linked his mobile device to the area of the crime.
A subsequent search warrant of Trujillo’s home revealed doorbell camera footage that purportedly captured Martinez leaving the home after 3 a.m. with Trujillo, who appears to be holding a plastic bag with a cell phone inside.
When police searched the home, they found a locked 9 mm gun belonging to Trujillo’s stepfather, the complaint said. But the stepfather told police that he remembered the key went missing for a week in August before appearing on the floor of the closet. The stepfather told police that it would’ve been possible for Trujillo to access the gun while the former was at work, the complaint said.
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Trujillo appeared in court for a dangerousness hearing in November 2022, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. He is charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors theorized at the hearing, according to the New Mexican, that Trujillo had lured Cordero through the LGBTQ dating app Grindr in an attempt to rob him.
“Mr. Trujillo got on the Grindr application … and encountered the alleged victim, Mr. Samuel Cordero, and lured him to Ragle Park, where the state’s theory is that a robbery was in progress,” Assistant District Attorney Ramon Carrillo alleged in court.
Carrillo alleged Trujillo had posed as a 19-year-old man on Grindr, according to the report.
Trujillo’s attorney, however, rebutted by saying there was no evidence that Cordero and Trujillo had met through the app, the New Mexican reported.
“The state did not produce any evidence that these two individuals ever had contact on the use of Grindr,” defense attorney Les Romaine said.
The charging document alleges that Martinez tampered with the gun and the cell phone in an attempt to “hinder apprehension, prosecution or conviction.”
It’s unclear if Martinez has been arrested, but she is set to appear in court for the first time on Sept. 13, a court spokesperson tells PEOPLE. It is not immediately clear if she has retained an attorney.
Trujillo has a docket call on Sept. 14.
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