Albuquerque school bus driver arrested in decades-old rape cases

Former school bus driver pleads guilty in decades-old rape cases

Ralph Martinez, 61, faces up to 30 years in prison.

An Albuquerque Public Schools bus driver was charged Thursday in connection with the rapes of three women during separate break-ins decades ago in Northeast Albuquerque.

Ralph Martinez, 61, is charged with three counts of criminal sexual penetration in the incidents, which occurred on Oct. 4, 1988; Aug. 3, 1991; and Aug. 7, 1991.

Nancy Laflin, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said Martinez is also a suspect in a fourth rape but the woman in that case has died.

Court records show agents with the DA’s office used DNA taken from the steering wheel and various buttons on the school bus Martinez drives to match it to the four original rape kits.

It is unclear if Martinez has an attorney.

“I am really proud of the hard work our Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit is doing. We hope this brings some amount of justice to these women and their families,” 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman said in a statement.

Court records show that Martinez lived within a few blocks of where the first two rapes happened. Martinez’s Facebook profile shows that, in the years since, he has raised a family and recent photos showed him smiling with his grandson and relaxing on the beach.

One photo showed Martinez posing in front of the school bus he drives, No. 297 — the same bus where agents say they covertly lifted the DNA that would incriminate him.

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said Martinez has been driving a bus for APS since mid-December 2018. Martinez has been placed on leave “pending the outcome of an investigation,” Armenta said, adding any other disciplinary issues involving him are confidential.

Armenta did note that the district completes a background check on all employees before they’re hired. APS would not say what school Martinez drove for.

Background

According to three separate criminal complaints filed in Metropolitan Court:

The first rape happened in 1988.

Albuquerque police responded around 11:30 p.m. to a home in the 1700 block of Wyoming NE, near Indian School. A 19-year-old told police she was in her bedroom when she heard knocking “from what she believed was her front door.”

The woman told police she opened her bedroom door and a man was standing there and told her he had a knife and would cut her “if she did not do what he said” or called 911. She said the man raped her and she ran to her parents house for help.

Laflin said Martinez’s DNA was matched to a 1989 case where a 59-year-old woman was raped in the area of Snow Heights Boulevard. She said that woman has since died and no charges were filed.

The third incident was in 1991.

On Aug. 3, police responded around 3:30 a.m. to a reported rape in the 8000 block of Aspen NE, near Indian School and Wyoming. A 35-year-old woman told police she was sleeping when a sensor light went on in her home.

The woman said she walked to the bathroom and was grabbed from behind and thrown onto the bed by a man. The woman told police she fought back but the man grabbed her gun off the nightstand, threatened to kill her and then raped her.

The woman said she asked the man his name and he replied, “For this purpose my name is Tony.” The woman told police she was able to escape to a neighbor’s house and the neighbor chased the man but was unable to catch him.

Police found the man had left behind his underwear and shirt.

Days later, on Aug. 7, police responded around 11:30 p.m. to a rape at an apartment in the 5300 block of San Mateo NE, near Osuna. An 18-year-old woman told police she was sleeping when a man placed his hand over her mouth and said she “had better be quiet and cooperate.”

She said the man told her he knew she had a boyfriend and that’s “why he did not just try to get to know (her) before raping her.” The woman told police the man said if she called 911 he would “come back and get her.”

Witnesses told police they saw a Hispanic man looking into the woman’s apartment on “several occasions” the day before. The woman later told police she saw two Hispanic men looking in her kitchen window before the rape.

In January 2020, the four rape kits, which were part of the rape kit backlog, were tested and came back as case-to-case matches. Agents with the DA’s Office used a genealogy company to find possible matches for the rape kits: Martinez and his brother.

Agents discovered Ralph Martinez worked as a bus driver for APS and were given permission to take DNA swabs from the driver’s area of the bus. The swabs matched Ralph Martinez’s DNA and the decades-old rape kits.