MONROE — The victim likely never saw his death coming, police
say.
As Evodio Martinez slept on the couch, his head covered with
a blanket, the murderer stabbed him over and over.
Kevin Rodriguez, 28, is accused of killing Martinez, 56.
Police have not identifi ed a motive, but they do know there is a
connection between the suspect and the scene of the crime, a
three-bedroom apartment in the 600 block of Terrace Street.
One of the victim’s roommates knew Rodriguez, said Monroe
Police Department Sergeant Brian Johnston. He had lived in the
apartment previously, though Johnston said he did not have
a key to the apartment. And a relative of Rodriguez told the
Tribune that the victim and the accused knew each other.
Seven males lived in the apartment.
On the evening of Martinez’s murder, four of the roommates
were enjoying a Saturday night out, while two slept in their
bedrooms unaware of what was occurring, police say.
When the four returned home When those four got in around
2 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, they knew something was amiss. They remembered locking the door when they left, Johnston said,
but though they could not pinpoint it, something did not seem
right with the lock when they returned.
But it wasn’t until one of the roommates walked toward his
bedroom at the back of the apartment that he saw the intruder.
“He walked into his room, the light was on, but as he opened
the door, Mr. Rodriguez was standing in the doorway ... covered
in blood,” Johnston said.
Chaos took hold as the men tried to restrain him.
“This was a particularly violent, brutal attack on several people,” and a “fairly gruesome crime scene,” Johnston said.
“They tried to subdue him using every means possible,” at one point trying to bind his arms with a cord.
During the struggle, they thought it was strange Martinez never moved from the couch.
Finally, they restrained Rodriguez and called 911.
They uncovered their roommate to find him dead, “stabbed and slashed a number of times,” Johnston said.
Johnston described officers arriving to the sound of shouting. “He killed my roommate! He killed my roommate!”
Rodriguez refused to obey officers’ orders but officers managed to take him into custody without further incident, Johnston said.
Two roommates were injured badly enough to require brief hospitalization. One was stabbed in the arm, another slashed across the temple, Johnston said.
Rodriguez sustained fractured ribs and blows to the head. He was hospitalized until being booked into the Snohomish County Jail
Feb. 11 on charges of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree assault and residential burglary.
Rodriguez’s sister, Johanna Rodriguez, is at a loss to explain.
“My family and myself are really having a hard time keeping it together. It’s something that’s super hard to believe,” she said in an online interview last week. They are “extremely sorry for (the) victim and victim’s family. It’s something we never thought would happen because not only did he know everyone, our family also knew the victim. And the victim was a very great person. And deep inside I’m just truly
sorry. I have no idea why this would happen.”
Police recovered the knives but did not have further information on the weapons available by press time, nor could they say whether
alcohol or drugs were factors in the attack, Johnston said.
The deadly assault was the most recent in a string of violations associated with Rodriguez. Sexual assault charges from 2013 were dropped when the alleged victim declined to continue prosecution. In 2014, Rodriguez landed in jail for a 2013 possession of methamphetamines charge. The judge in that case noted Rodriguez had a drug dependency. By the end of 2014, he had accrued another conviction, this one for possession of a stolen vehicle. In 2016, Rodriguez was again found guilty, this time of throwing a rock through the window of a business he claimed owed him wages. But the owner of the business, Adam’s Northwest Bistro and Brewery, at the time according to the Herald had no record of
Rodriguez ever working there.
Before all those incidents, Rodriguez himself first filed for a protection order from the mother of his infant child in 2009, alleging that she assaulted him and injured the child. “I’m tired of all
this stuff,” the then 18-year-old wrote. “I just want an education and to be a good father.” The sentiment is echoed on Rodriguez’s Facebook page where a 2014 post reads “Just peace is all anyone ever wanted.”
Now it will be up to the court system to decide
Rodriguez’s fate.
