Warning: Story below contains disturbing details
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – On day two of Fabian Gonzales’ trial the state’s star witness Jessica Kelley testified against her cousin. Kelley went into details of what she says happened the day Victoria Martens was killed in 2016.
As part of Kelley’s plea deal in the case, she agreed to testify against her cousin. Thursday, she walked the jury through the grim details. Kelley says she was left alone with Victoria, paranoid and high on meth when a man she’s never met before walked in and killed the 10-year-old.
Spending all day on the witness stand Thursday, prosecutors question Kelley about her actions on each day leading up to the day Victoria was murder. In the early morning hours of the day Victoria would later be killed, Kelley testified to being paranoid all day.
On the day Victoria was killed, she claims Gonzales and Victoria’s mother, Michelle Martens, knew she was on meth when they left her alone with the 10-year-old. For the first time, Kelley publicly told the story of the unknown person who she claims killed Victoria.
Kelley told prosecutors an unknown man later walked in asking for “Favo” and then went into Victoria’s room, strangled the girl, and left. “[The man] said, ‘Fabian f***** up. He knows what he did, there’s a mess in there’ that me and Fabian have to clean up and if not, ‘it’s going to be our lives and my kid’s lives,'” said Kelley.
After Victoria was killed, Kelley says she walked into Victoria’s room and found the girl lying on her back, blue in the face and without a pulse. Kelley claims she waited for Gonzales to come home, then pulled her cousin aside to tell him what happened.
“I don’t think he really believed me, because he was like, ‘For real cuz?! What the ****!’ and I was like, ‘For real, what are we going to– we have to get rid of her body, like,'” Kelley said describing Fabian’s reaction to learning of Victoria’s death. “And he said, ‘alright, we’ll take turns.”
At that point, Kelley claims Gonzales helped distract Michelle Martens from learning that Victoria was dead. She added that Michelle Martens never checked on her daughter before going to bed.
Kelley says that’s when Gonzales went into Victoria’s room and started dismembering the girl’s body. “He was cutting her in the middle of her chest. He was like, ‘we’ve gotta make it look like it’s not us!’ I was, ‘like what the?! Just get the **** out of here, I’ll finish it,'” Kelley testified.
Gonzales is sticking to his original claim that Jessica Kelley acted alone. He claims Kelley is the one who killed Victoria and tried to dispose of the body.
The defense also started questioning Kelley late Thursday afternoon aiming to poke holes in her story. That testimony is expected to resume Friday.
Kelley also admitted that after attempting to dispose of Victoria’s body, she planned on killing Gonzales and Martens with an iron because she was scared of going back to prison. Kelley is serving a 44-year prison sentence after she pled no contest to reckless child abuse resulting in death and several other charges. However, she may only have to serve half if she earns good time.
Fabian Gonzales is facing reckless abuse of a child resulting in death and eight other charges. No one is charged with Victoria’s murder.
