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SALT LAKE CITY — A Magna man convicted of stabbing another man and pushing him out of a moving truck will spend the next 30 years in prison.
Mario Alberto Carreto-Morales, 26, who pleaded guilty in February to murder and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years to up to life in the Utah State Prison on each count. A judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
"This vicious murder of a U.S. veteran who served multiple tours in the Middle East left many in our community shocked. We hope the defendant's significant sentence will help Mr. Martinez's family and our community begin to heal," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Thursday.
On Feb. 26, 2022, Cesar Adan Martinez, 37, met Carreto-Morales and Raul Jaimes Cortez, 32, in an apartment parking lot in West Valley for the first time. Carreto-Morales and Cortez asked Martinez for a ride.
Prosecutors say the three men went to Cortez's apartment complex where they had drinks. But as Martinez was getting ready to leave, Carreto-Morales and Cortez made a plan to rob him of his vehicle and offered to give him a ride home because he had been drinking, charging documents state.
While on the Bangerter Highway near 8300 South, about 2:40 a.m., Carreto-Morales attempted to place a metal wire around Martinez's neck and then stabbed Martinez three times from the back seat. When Martinez opened the door to escape, Carreto-Morales pushed him out, charges state.
Both Carreto-Morales and Cortez are also accused of kidnapping and robbing another man at knifepoint in Park City a couple of weeks later, on March 13, 2022. The victim in that case says he was forced to drive to an ATM and withdraw money. Information collected from that investigation helped police link the two men to Martinez's death.
Cortez, who is also charged with murder and aggravated kidnapping, is scheduled to be back in court on June 7.
A third man was arrested in connection with the investigation in December 2022.
