David Martinez murder: 'Dangerous' and 'possessive' man convicted of stabbing flatmate to death

Carlos Velez was convicted of murder on Thursday
Met Police
Kit Heren25 June 2020
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A "dangerous" and "possessive" man who killed his flatmate after falsely accusing him of kissing his girlfriend has been found guilty of murder.

Carlos Velez, 20, repeatedly stabbed David Martinez in the kitchen of the flat they shared with Velez' girlfriend and mother in Leyton, east London.

Velez was convicted of murder on Thursday after a nine-day trial at the Old Bailey, and will be sentenced on Friday.

The court heard that on on March 6 last year Velez had argued with his girlfriend, demanding to know what she had been doing in the kitchen with Mr Martinez.

David Martinez was murdered by his flatmate Carlos Velez (Met Police )
Met Police

Mr Martinez then messaged his cousins to say Velez was “all crazy and was asking if had kissed his girlfriend” and “I am going to try to go on Friday else I’ll end up dead”.

Velez' girlfriend then came back into the kitchen to see her boyfriend stabbing Mr Martinez several times in the head and stomach.

Witnesses said Mr Martinez ran out screaming onto North Birkbeck Road despite his injuries and pleaded with passers-by to call 999.

He died of his wounds shortly after police and paramedics arrived at the scene.

Police at the scene near North Birkbeck Road
PA

Velez was arrested in Portsmouth in the early hours of the next morning after fleeing London to stay with a friend.

He told officers that he was not involved in the murder and or even in the flat at the time. He gave an account of being robbed at knifepoint, and said he had started to see visions.

He later admitted the lie and said he had suffered from memory loss for three months.

He was charged with murder after his fingerprints were found in Mr Martinez' blood at the flat.

Police at the scene near North Birkbeck Road in Leyton, east London
PA

Detective Inspector David Hillier of Specialist Crime said: “This is an extremely tragic case in which a young man has lost his life at the hands of another young man, who didn’t like the fact he had talked to his girlfriend.

“Carlos Velez is an extremely dangerous and possessive individual, with a history of resorting to violence, when he saw other men simply look in the direction of his girlfriend, I am glad the jury has seen through his attempt to escape responsibility for his actions and that he will now spend a long period of time in jail thinking about the consequences of what he has done."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in