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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Conviction Upheld for 2003 Murder of School Worker


Associated Press
       SANTA FE — The state Supreme Court has upheld the murder and kidnapping convictions of a former Albuquerque elementary school janitor for the killing of a school occupational therapist in 2003.
    Martin Saiz was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Carolyn Rustvold, 24 years for her kidnapping and 18 years for nine evidence tampering convictions.
    In an unanimous ruling on Tuesday, the court reversed six of the convictions for evidence tampering and ordered the case back to district court for adjustment of Saiz's sentence.
    "To impose nine sentences for three separately punishable crimes would constitute multiple punishments for the same offense," the court said.
    Rustvold was last seen alive on Jan. 17, 2003. She had locked herself out of her portable classroom at Montezuma Elementary School and went to Saiz, the school's night janitor, for help.
    Rustvold's body was found two months later in an irrigation ditch in Belen.
    The court said there were three separate crimes of tampering with evidence: a cleanup of evidence at the school immediately after the murder, when Saiz moved Rustvold's body from Albuquerque to Belen and a day after the murder when he tried to conceal and destroy evidence, such as bloody clothing, at his home. He was convicted of several evidence tampering counts for actions at the school, such as cleaning blood from a classroom, painting over blood on wooden blocks and cleaning blood between school buildings.

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