Valley food delivery driver photographs her own murderer

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Pamela Rae Martinez did not like photographs taken of herself, but a image she took minutes just before she was murdered gave a encounter to the person accused of killing her.

Associated: Valley meals shipping driver photographed her killer right before she was murdered, police say

The 60-year-old Glendale resident snapped a cellphone photograph of Rusty Raymond French right after “some type of altercation” while on the road minutes in advance of he shot and killed her, the Glendale law enforcement office said.

“She did not should have that,” mentioned Monique Daniels, Martinez’s daughter. “She never designed it home due to the fact she was taken. She was fewer than 3 minutes away.”

Daniels last observed her mom all over 5:30 p.m. on June 11th. She is seven months expecting, and her caring mother delivered drinks to suffice her soda craving at the residence they shared, though she was out performing foodstuff deliveries.

At close to 7:02 p.m. Martinez informed her boyfriend by way of text information she was leaving Dairy Queen to fall off an get, court documents stated.

All-around 7:11 p.m. Daniels reported her mother called her and questioned to pack her a bag. Martinez was setting up to devote the evening at her boyfriend’s home and reported she would decide it up in 20 minutes.

At 7:15 p.m. Uber Eats verified with law enforcement Martinez delivered her previous buy.

But Martinez never built it house.

Glendale officers responded to reports of a man or woman injured subsequent an incident just before 7:30 p.m. on 61st Avenue, just north of Bell Street, the department claimed.

Martinez was uncovered in distress and non-responsive inside of her vehicle that had veered off the highway into a landscaping space, officers said.

The motor vehicle was locked. Officers utilized a hammer from a witness and broke the driver’s window and pulled Martinez out to render her aid.

Officers observed the passenger window was all the way down, but a modest tree prevented access for initially responders to help Martinez from that aspect of the auto, courtroom documents say.

Paramedics could not help save the single mom of two, and grandmother of 4.

At 60 decades old, Martinez was more powerful and more healthy than ever.

“She cherished to do the job out, she liked well being, she was a bodybuilder up until finally 59,” the daughter stated. “She experienced at least 40 much more several years if not much more, to go.”

Every single morning, Martinez drank a vegetable smoothie accompanied by a dozen of vitamins, Daniels mentioned.

As considerably back again as she remembers, her mom was normally active, even coaching her softball and basketball groups while she attended West Phoenix Significant Faculty, where Martinez was a instructor at.

“She was also taught elementary,” Daniels stated. “But in superior school, sometimes it was hard due to the fact she had all of us functioning and likely nonstop. She constantly ingrained on us that it was not just sports what she was training us, but life classes.”

To combat, push as a result of, and get to your targets are teachings Daniels said she lives by now.

Their father died when she was youthful, so Martinez was forced to raise her two daughters by herself. Something Daniels discovered inspirational. Teachings she said are supporting her cope with her loss.

“Our entire lifetime she’s been a fighter, she’s been so sturdy, and I informed my partner that she solved her individual homicide,” Daniels reported.

It’s however unclear what led to the shooting, but Glendale police consider it might have been a end result of “road rage.”

The suspect, 62-yr-old Rusty Raymond French, is found on surveillance movie from a close by cafe driving south on 61st Avenue, north of Bell Road when he manufactured a remaining change onto a grime parking ton, court docket data said.

Martinez’s auto was seen heading north on the exact same extend of highway when she turned suitable on to the parking ton driving French, files detail.

Documents counsel “no altercation” can be noticed on that digital camera, but by some means the automobiles finished up in reverse path.

A witness informed law enforcement he was driving on 61st Avenue when he noticed Martinez’s automobile parked alongside the west curb dealing with northbound. This person said a van facing southbound was parked up coming to the auto, court documents reported.

The witness mentioned a white guy, believed to be French, was standing exterior Martinez’s entrance driver-side door.

“When that witness known as out to them, then guy acquired into it’s van and drove off,” mentioned Officer Tiffany Ngalula. “That’s when the vehicle just bit by bit drove off into the landscaping.”

In the course of their investigation, detectives uncovered a photograph on Martinez’s cell phone of a white person, taken at 7:22 p.m., minutes right before she was shot and killed.

“The photograph that she took was of the van that the witness described, and of a person, sitting in his van,” Officer Ngalula explained. “Had she not performed that, we would not know who her shooter was.”

Police identified the gentleman in the photograph as French, 4 times just after the capturing when the Arizona Office of Transportation conducted a facial recognition research.

On June 15th, French was taken into custody following a motor vehicle matching the description of the witness and seen in the image, was identified parked outside the suspect’s house.

In a put up-Miranda interview with detectives, French in the beginning did not disclose becoming in the vicinity of the capturing scene. But when he was confronted with the photograph, that had geolocation, records mentioned he “reported that it was him in the photograph.”

“Rusty claimed to have no knowledge of the incident and believed he might have blacked out,” court docket files reported.

When detectives questioned French about the photograph and requested if he considered Martinez’s cellphone was a firearm, “Rusty replied and explained a little something to the effect that he would explain to [the detective] if he had a self-defense declare, but he does not.”

French allegedly “showed no remorse for the incident,” all through his very first job interview with police.

Courtroom documents recommend Martinez died from a gunshot wound. A bullet recovered from her injuries matched a handgun uncovered in French’s dwelling.

He was taken into custody on June 23rd and is now facing 2nd-diploma murder expenses.

Daniels reported her mother solved her personal murder, which is anything she is very pleased of.

“He took from us a particular person that we can never get again,” she mentioned. “Getting justice is fantastic and all, but doesn’t take care of something, she is not coming back.”

“I would like her to be remembered as a robust, inspired, decided lady, who did every little thing and nearly anything she could to make certain she built it,” Daniels explained.

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