On Thursday (1/5) Linda Martinez, age 55, of Caroline Street in the Village of Clyde was sentenced to eight years in state prison, with five years post release supervision.

Linda pled guilty back on October 21, 2022 to Manslaughter in the First Degree, nearly two years after the murder.

Family members became concerned when Rafael Martinez, age 59, disappeared from his home on Caroline Street in October, 2020. They posted on social media sites asking for anyone’s help in finding the man.

State Police began working the case after responding to a report of a missing adult person.

Little did family know that Rafael, also known as Ralph, or Ralphy, had been the victim of a domestic incident at his residence.

During a domestic dispute, Rafael’s wife, Linda, had shot her husband sometime on Sunday (10/25/20).

After the shooting death,  Linda reportedly called a nephew, who, along with another accomplice removed the body, transporting it to Cayuga County and dumping it into the Seneca River.

Rafael’s cell phone and the gun used to kill him were thrown into a pond in the Town of Savannah.

Through an investigation by the New York State Major Crimes Unit out of Canandaigua, an interrogation,  a forensic study of a cell phone, evidence began to build concerning Linda and the two men involved in transporting the body and concealing evidence.

Members of the State Police Underwater Recovery Team, assisted by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and CSX Railroad, recovered the body of Rafael Martinez, age 59, from the Seneca River in Cayuga County on Wednesday (10/28).

The State Police Underwater Recovery Team, then searched a Town of Savannah pond where the gun used in the killing and Rafael’s cell phone were reportedly thrown. They have not yet been recovered.

Linda Martinez, who admitted to the shooting death of her husband, was charged with Murder in the Second Degree on Wednesday (10/28) and remanded to jail.

Sources close to the investigation indicted Linda Martinez claimed that Rafael had beat her and she shot him in self defense.

The two male accomplices, also facing charges, cooperated with the State Police and admitted their role in the crime.

Following her sentencing, Linda Martinez was remanded to the Wayne County Jail, pending her transfer to state prison.

Martinez nephew, Brandon Williams was charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second and Third Degrees, along with Tampering With Physical Evidence. He was sentenced on March 24, 2022, to 7 years in State Prison on the three charges.

The other man involved, Mark Shannon was charged with the same three charges and sentenced in September of 2021 to six years in State Prison.