Jury convicts man in ‘04 Lakewood drug murder

George Madrid

JEFFERSON COUNTY – A 40-year-old man will serve life in prison without parole after he was convicted in the 2004 stabbing death of a Lakewood man and dumping the body near the Evergreen home of former Colorado Rockies’ outfielder Larry Walker.

A Jefferson County District Court jury deliberated nearly three days before delivering the unanimous verdict late Thursday, convicting George Madrid, 40, of first-degree premeditated murder of James Martinez, according to a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office.

Martinez was killed in mid-April 2004. Walker and his young daughter, who were riding an all-terrain vehicle, found the body in a wooded area on Walker’s property a week later.

Investigators did not link Madrid to the crime until two years later and he was indicted by a Jefferson County Grand Jury on a single count: first-degree murder after deliberation in July, 2006.

Prosecutors said the killing sprang from a cocaine deal between Madrid and Martinez that went sour when Madrid couldn’t collect.

Madrid, prosecutors said, went to the victim’s Lakewood apartment and confronted him, saying: “Today is the day you meet your maker,” according to testimony at the trial. Then Madrid took a large butcher knife from the kitchen and forced Martinez from the apartment, accompanied by a third man, who remains under investigation, according to prosecutors.

When Madrid returned to the apartment, he was carrying a bent and bloody knife.

He was released after a 17-year prison sentence for manslaughter just six months before Martinez was murdered.

“This was a difficult investigation from the beginning,” said District Attorney Scott Storey, “Madrid is a dangerous man and anyone who may have been a witness was very reluctant to talk to investigators. The Sheriff’s Office did an outstanding job in this case; they were relentless and continue to be dedicated to the protection of these witnesses.”

Prosecutors said many of the witnesses were family members or people involved in close relationships with Madrid or other potential witnesses and it was months after the crime before the first witness began talking after federal authorities charged Madrid with firearms violations and took him into in custody. He later was sentenced to prison on those charges.

Madrid’s mandatory life sentence will be handed down Jan. 26 at 1:00, according to the DA’s Office.