Mecca murder suspect arrested after year on the run
A man wanted for the murder of a man in Mecca in April 2018 is finally behind bars after spending nearly a year on the lam.
30-year-old Indio resident Gilbert Martinez reportedly shot Hugo Nunez on Fifth Street between Lincoln Street and Coahuilla Street at 12:16 a.m. on April 8, 2018. Nunez was airlifted o an area hospital, where he later died.
Deputies identified Martinez as the homicide suspect shortly after the shooting.
On April 7, 2019, Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to the city of Coachella conducted a felony traffic stop near the intersection of Balboa Street and Westerfield. Martinez was in the vehicle and was arrested and booked into Indio jail on the outstanding homicide warrant for his arrest.
He is being held on $1,000,000 bail. He is set to appear in court on April 10 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
Friends of Nunez spoke with News Channel 3 after the shooting last year.
“He was a good friend. Everyone liked him in the neighborhood. He was a really good man, I have nothing bad to say about him. It was a wasted life for him just to die like that when none of it was his problem. They just came up to him and shot him right there,” said Guadalupe Villegas, a friend of Nunez.
Anyone with information on this case is urged to contact Central Homicide Investigator Alfaro at (760) 393-3528.
