Mother indicted for same murder months after her daughter pleaded guilty to committing

Published 8:34 am Saturday, November 23, 2019

A mother has been indicted on murder charges months after her daughter pleaded guilty in the same case.

Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom tells The Commercial Dispatch that Lydia Martinez was indicted because new evidence suggests she was a more active participant in 2015’s killing of Manuel Vazquez.

Martinez, a 60-year-old Colorado woman, was earlier indicted as an accessory.

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She told authorities that Christina Martinez, her daughter and Vazquez’s wife, forced her to help dispose of Vazquez’s body by threatening the couple’s three children.

Grand jurors originally indicted only Christina Martinez for murder, although Lydia had also been arrested on that charge.

Attorneys say evidence now suggests multiple people participated in Vasquez’s murder.

Christina Martinez is cooperating, pleading guilty to second-degree murder in September. A February sentencing is scheduled.