Man charged in connection with killing of cousin in Hartford faces judge – NBC Connecticut

One of the two people charged in the murder of a teenager in Hartford last week was arraigned in court Tuesday.

Edgar Martinez, 18, was found shot and curled up in a blanket on the side of a road in Hartford on Saturday morning.

Police believe he was there for about a day and concluded through their investigation that the shooting occurred at an apartment on Magnolia Street where Martinez and the suspects lived.

The accused suspects are the victim's cousins.

The sender, Soto-Veliz, was charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. His bail was set at $500,000.

The Martinez family was in the courtroom for the appearance and said they didn't believe the bail was set high enough.

The state recommended $1 million and said Soto-Veliz was a flight risk.

“This bail is $500,000… my brother isn’t worth half a million. My brother has no price. We must give justice to my brother because he can no longer demand it,” said Nimsa Martinez, Edgar’s sister.

“The feeling I felt was very great,” said Edgar’s aunt, Veroniza Martinez Mayen. “I wonder how this person's hands could harm my nephew.”

A 17-year-old male is charged with murder but has not yet been transferred to adult court for arraignment.

“He should be judged as an adult because my nephew is no longer here,” Martinez Mayen said.

Martinez was set to turn 19 on Thursday and had just graduated high school this year.

“Edgar is a really good guy. Really good guy. I always remember him with a smile. I always remember he was never angry, he's not a troubled guy,” said his cousin Brian Ortiz.

He was a hard worker, his family said, working toward a life of his own until his life was cut short.

“Justice is what we want because he was a child, he was a person who was just starting to dream and in the end they took that away from him and we don't understand why,” his aunt said.

“I thought…if I brought them here, I would help them leave crime in Guatemala behind. “It turns out that what we fought so hard to prevent from happening to them happened to them here,” she continued.

The family hopes to send Martinez's body back to Guatemala, where his parents live, for a proper burial.