By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A 54-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man have been arrested and charged with murder in the shooting of a woman in the Cienegas Terrace area of the county in late July.
The two are charged in a murder-for-hire plot that resulted from an extramarital affair, Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told the 830 Times Friday.
Elisa Wesley Alvarez, 705 Spring St., was arrested on the murder charge Wednesday, and Jose Ignacio Solis, a U.S. citizen who resides in Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico, was arrested Aug. 27 on unrelated charges in Mexico and turned over to U.S. authorities on Monday. Solis was arrested on the murder charge Thursday while in custody for the unrelated charges.
In the complaint filed in the case, Val Verde Sheriff’s Office Investigator Marcos Hernandez said VVSO investigators were dispatched to 142 Fir St., in the Cienegas Terrace area of the county at 8:50 a.m. on July 25 after a woman, identified as Mirosalva Martinez, had been shot there.
Hernandez said Martinez’s 14-year-old daughter identified the victim of the shooting as her mother.
Martinez was transported to the emergency room at Val Verde Regional Medical Center, where she died. An autopsy determined Martinez had died as a result of “gunshot wounds to her left lung and left temporal lobe,” Hernandez wrote.
Martinez’s daughter told investigators she heard a car arrive outside the residence and honk several times, Hernandez said, adding the witness said the car looked like a Buick owned by one of her relatives.
“VVSO investigators proceeded to obtain footage from several residences and businesses located around the neighborhood area of the shooting . . . A compilation of footage obtained and studied revealed a silver four-door Buick Lacrosse passing by a local laundromat and convenience store approximately 10 minutes before the incident occurred. In that video footage, a single male subject wears a red t-shirt while operating a silver Buick Lacrosse,” Hernandez wrote.
Hernandez said he also reviewed footage from the city tollbooths at the international bridge and found the same man in the silver Buick crossing into Ciudad Acuña later that morning.
In researching the vehicle, Hernandez said, he learned Alvarez owns the Buick Lacrosse.
On July 27, Hernandez wrote investigators interviewed Martinez’s husband, Jose Maximo Martinez.
“(Mr.) Martinez admitted to VVSO investigators that he was having an affair with Elisa Wesley Alvarez. (Mr.) Martinez stated the affair has been going on for about a year, unbeknownst to the victim,” Hernandez wrote.
On July 30, Hernandez said investigators interviewed Alvarez at her Spring Street residence.
She told them Solis had come to her home at 8 a.m. on July 25 to borrow her car to look for work. She said she had previously hired Solis to do construction work at her residence and told investigators he did not return her vehicle the day he borrowed it.
“VVSO investigators asked Alvarez if she knew a man by the name of Jose Maximo Martinez. Alvarez stated she has been romantically involved with (Mr.) Martinez for over a year,” Hernandez said.
“Alvarez stated the last time she spoke with (Mr.) Martinez was when he called on July 25 around 9 a.m. Alvarez informed VVSO investigators (Mr.) Martinez called her cell phone saying, ‘Acaban de balasear a mi ruka.’ (They just shot my girl.) Alvarez denied to the investigators having any involvement with the murder,” Hernandez added.
Hernandez wrote when he asked Alvarez if she knew Mirosalva Martinez, “Alvarez stated she did not know the victim personally, but recalls running into the victim and (Mr.) Martinez a couple months ago at Dirt Cheap, which is a local retail store in Del Rio.”
In a separate interview, conducted while he was in custody, Solis told Hernandez he remembered a day when Alvarez seemed very upset.
“When Solis asked what was bothering her, Alvarez stated that she ran into (Mr.) Martinez and Mirosalva Martinez at Dirt Cheap. Alvarez said Mirosalva Martinez gave her a dirty look and did not acknowledge her when (Mr.) Martinez introduced them to each other. Solis stated Alvarez said, ‘(Expletive) vieja la voy a matar.’ (Expletive old lady, I’m going to kill her.),” Hernandez wrote.
Hernandez also wrote about Solis’ arrest in Mexico, saying he was taken into custody by Mexican authorities for the offense of terroristic threat with a firearm. The authorities also seized the vehicle Solis was driving.
Solis was repatriated after being turned over to the U.S. Marshal’s Service by Mexican authorities at the Del Rio Port of Entry July 27. The vehicle was turned over to the sheriff’s office at a later date, and Hernandez said a subsequent search of the vehicle turned up a red t-shirt in the trunk of the car.
Hernandez said Solis attempted to commit suicide while in custody and noted he went to the hospital to interview Solis after the suicide attempt.
“Solis informed (me) he was afraid for his family’s safety as well as his own. Solis stated his pregnant wife along with their four children are nowhere to be found in Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico. Solis informed (me) that Alvarez might have done something to his family because he ‘knew too much.’ . . . Solis confessed to (me) that Alvarez hired him to kill Mirosalva Martinez,” Hernandez wrote.
But Solis claimed he did not shoot Martinez.
“Solis stated a male subject known as ‘El Diablo’ (The Devil) was the shooter. Solis informed (me) ‘El Diablo’ was concealed in the trunk of the Buick, which is why he was never seen in the surveillance footage.
“Solis informed investigators during this interview that he was told by Alvarez that ‘Diablo knew what to do.’ He claimed that Alvarez told him he didn’t have to worry about anything. Solis never saw the gun that he states Diablo used,” Hernandez wrote.
Hernandez wrote Solis also told him the honking of the car horn when he arrived outside the Martinez residence was the signal for “El Diablo” to “pop the trunk and shoot Mirosalva Martinez.”
Solis claimed he and “El Diablo” went to Alvarez’s home on Spring Street after the murder and said Alvarez told them to go to Acuña. Once there, Solis claimed he dropped “El Diablo” off at a mechanic shop.
“Solis stated he did not receive U.S. currency, but Alvarez told him he would be receiving a new lot with a home in Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico as payment for the murder of Mirosalva Martinez,” Hernandez wrote.
Justice of the Peace Pct. 3 Pat Cole set bonds of $1 million each in the cases against Alvarez and Solis on Friday.
A condition of bond is that neither Alvarez nor Solis may leave Val Verde County, Cole noted.
Martinez lauded the efforts of his criminal investigations division in making the arrests.
“The criminal investigations division of the sheriff’s office did an excellent job in investigating this case and bringing it to a conclusion. It was a team effort between the sheriff’s office CID, the DEA and personnel from the U.S. Marshal’s Service, as we have people assigned to those two agencies as part of two different task forces,” Martinez said today.
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