Former Fort Dix Inmate Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison For Hiring Criminal Associates To Assault His Ex-Girlfriend And Kill Her Boyfriend

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced today that OMAR ADONIS GUZMAN-MARTINEZ was sentenced to 30 years in prison for hiring others to viciously slash his ex-girlfriend (“Victim-1”) on June 2, 2015, in the Bronx, New York, and to murder her boyfriend (“Victim-2”) on March 20, 2016, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  At the times he planned and caused others to carry out those crimes, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ was incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, New Jersey (“FCI Fort Dix”), and he used contraband cellphones to stalk, threaten, and induce others to commit crimes of violence against his victims.  Today’s sentence is to run consecutively to the sentence GUZMAN-MARTINEZ was already serving on unrelated federal narcotics charges, which was due to end in 2025. 

GUZMAN-MARTINEZ, 46, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, pled guilty on July 28, 2017, to interstate domestic violence, interstate stalking, interstate threats, and conspiracy, before U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest, who also imposed today’s sentence.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Omar Adonis Guzman-Martinez, already serving a prison term on narcotics charges, ordered and oversaw the brutal slashing of his ex-girlfriend and the cold-blooded contract killing of her boyfriend.  Today he has rightly been handed a lengthy additional prison term for the murder and mayhem he orchestrated from his prison cell.”

HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Angel M. Melendez said:  “Even while incarcerated, Guzman-Martinez thought that he was above the law.  It was under his command that one individual was slashed and another was murdered.  But, it is clear that his actions are not without consequence.  His connection to these violent crimes has more than doubled his time in prison, and today’s sentencing serves as notice to criminals like Guzman-Martinez that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

According to the Indictment, other filings in Manhattan federal court, and statements made in court proceedings:

Throughout his incarceration in the United States, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ used contraband cellphones to engage in a course of conduct intended to harass, intimidate, and threaten Victim-1.  As part of that course of conduct, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ, among other things, caused co-conspirators to slash Victim-1 and to murder Victim-2. 

Specifically, in mid-June 2015, while incarcerated at FCI Fort Dix, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ began recruiting co-conspirators to carry out a violent slashing of Victim-1, with whom GUZMAN-MARTINEZ has two children.  GUZMAN-MARTINEZ eventually found two young men from Puerto Rico (the “Slashers”) who agreed to cut Victim-1 in exchange for payment.  GUZMAN-MARTINEZ then arranged for the Slashers to fly from Puerto Rico to Orlando, Florida, where they tried to find an opportunity to attack Victim-1.  When the Slashers failed to carry out the attack in Florida, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ arranged for them and Victim-1 to travel to the Bronx, New York, where the Slashers carried out the attack using box cutters.

By late-2015, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ had also started causing co-conspirators in the Dominican Republic to attempt to locate, stalk, surveil, and ultimately kill Victim-2, who was dating Victim-1 at the time.  By March 2016, GUZMAN-MARTINEZ had identified someone willing to carry out the shooting in return for payment (the “Shooter”), and he caused another co-conspirator to acquire a firearm for the Shooter to use.  Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on March 20, 2016, outside a nightclub in Sabana Perdida, Santo Domingo, the Shooter shot Victim-2 in the back of the head, killing him.  Victim-1 was present at the scene.  GUZMAN-MARTINEZ was in phone contact with co-conspirators as the shooting occurred and caused a sum of money to be paid to the Shooter for carrying out the murder.

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Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative efforts of HSI, the New York City Police Department, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, and Special Agent Investigators at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Balsamello and Jacob Warren are in charge of the prosecution.