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A suspected contract killer charged in California with killing nine people has confessed to investigators that he carried out up to 40 slayings in a career spanning decades, according to a prosecutor.Errek Jett, district attorney in Lawrence County, Alabama, said on Wednesday that Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, told investigators he carried out the crimes working as an enforcer for a drug cartel.
Jett said they believe Martinez because of the details he gave investigators.
Martinez was arrested last year shortly after crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona and sent to Alabama, where he awaits trial on one murder charge.
Once word got out, a steady stream of investigators from across the country came to question Martinez, Jett said. Defence attorney Thomas Turner, who represents Martinez in that lone case, said his client is eager to start a trial in June in Alabama, so he can return to California.
Turner said Martinez maintains his innocence to the charge there and doesn’t seem to be a hardened killer.
“I’ve found him to be polite and a likable individual,” Turner said. “He has a good personality as far as talking with him.”
Prosecutors in California say otherwise.
Martinez targeted victims in Tulare, Kern and Santa Barbara counties between 1980 and 2011, Tulare County Assistant District Attorney Anthony Fultz, who filed charges on Tuesday, said.
Investigators have released details of their case, saying six of the victims were killed in Tulare County, two in Kern and one in Santa Barbara.
They ranged in age from 22 to 56, investigators said.
One man was shot dead in 1980 driving to work in the morning, while two men were shot in 1982 working on a ranch, one surviving. — AP
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