A Colorado security guard was caught carrying a severed hand inside his coat pocket while on the job last week — just one day after a mutilated, headless body was found at a nearby creek.
Solomon Martinez, 26, was arrested at work on Jan. 11 on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of the woman, who is believed to be the owner of the hand, Pueblo police said.
He allegedly admitted to hiring the woman as a prostitute days before, but denied committing the murder.
Cops quickly zeroed in on Martinez after his roommate caught him covered in dirt and blood at a local carwash before 5 a.m. two days before his arrest.
Martinez allegedly used a pressure washer to clean the blood off his hands — and asked his roommate to dig a 10-foot hole for him, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Pueblo Chieftain.
The roommate, who was reportedly at the car wash to work on his car, told police he asked to borrow tools from Martinez, but the alleged killer refused to allow him to open the trunk of the car to retrieve them.
Martinez allegedly struggled to move “something big” in the trunk out of the way to grab the tools.
Another witness backed up the roommate’s claims, reporting that he also heard Martinez make several comments about needing to dig a deep hole.
The witness, a friend of the security guard, also told police that he watched Martinez drag what appeared to be a woman’s body down to the creek bed that same morning.
Martinez first asked the friend to help dispose of the body — and then threatened him with a gun — but the friend refused, the records state.
The body was decapitated, but her head was with her body, the friend reported. He took video at the scene to “cover for himself” before covering the body with a blanket because he “didn’t know what else to do.”
Police tracked Martinez down to his job at a security guard company owned by the former Pueblo County Sheriff, who had hired the alleged killer just two weeks earlier.
That’s when investigators found the human hand inside a plastic bag tucked into the left chest pocket of Martinez’s jacket — which he admitted to carrying around for two days, the affidavit shows.
Police noticed he had cuts all over his wrists and hands, which Martinez tried to explain away as injuries from Chihuahuas before later claiming they came from small rocks while picking up after his dog.
His car was also allegedly covered in blood.
Martinez tried to pin the murder on the friend who filmed the video, which police viewed and noted showed a headless body.
He claimed the friend had “borrowed his vehicle,” which also had his gun and phone inside at the time, and then asked Martinez to pick up the hand, the records state.
When asked if cops could find anything incriminating on his phone, Martinez said: “Probably, I am afraid to know.”
Martinez was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and is being held at the Pueblo County jail on a $1 million cash-only bond.
Pueblo is a city 40 miles south of Colorado Springs.