By Valeria Maria Torres Nieves
PUERTO RICO – Luis Antonio Cádiz Martínez confessed to his brother Ricardo Cádiz Martínez that “he and Félix (Verdejo Sánchez) had killed someone,” the day after the murder of Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz, on April 30, 2021, in the apartment in the one who lived in the Luis Llorens Torres residential.
According to Ricardo’s testimony in room three of the Federal Court of San Juan -where a trial is being conducted against Verdejo Sánchez for charges related to the femicide of Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz- Luis Antonio would have told him about the crime when they both saw on television that They found the gray Kia Forte car, owned by the victim, in Canóvanas.
“We stared at each other and he opened his eyes,” he recalled about the moment in which they both recognized the vehicle that appeared on the screen, since they had taken it to that precise place during the morning of the previous day, on April 29, 2021.
When asked by the prosecutor Jonathan Gottfried, Ricardo explained that he had accompanied his brother to that municipality, because he told him that he had to take the car to a client of his “car wash” in the residential area and he had no way to return.
Before leaving for Canóvanas -Luis in the gray Kia Forte and Ricardo in a black Lexus driven by a friend of his who was not identified in the courtroom-, the twenty-fifth witness of the Public Ministry in the trial assured that he saw Verdejo Sánchez in his Dodge Durango bus in the residential area.
Upon learning of the crime that his brother confessed to him, Ricardo turned to the aunt of the mother of his children – who is a police officer – and she recommended that they call the lawyer Edwin Prado. After coordinating a meeting between Luis and the lawyer, which occurred on the night of May 1, 2021, Ricardo did not see his brother again, according to his testimony.
Five days later, a grand jury indicted Verdejo Sánchez on four criminal counts. According to the indictment, Verdejo and his accomplice, Cádiz Martínez, committed the crimes for which they are accused after “substantial and premeditated planning” to cause Rodríguez’s death.
Verdejo Sánchez asked for abortion pills
Three days before the murder, on April 26, 2021, Verdejo Sánchez called Ricardo Cádiz Martínez and, without giving him any further explanation, asked him for abortion pills.
To which Cádiz Martínez replied: “Make sure if the person is going to abort. If he’s going to abort, I’ll get them for you, if not, I’m not going to get them for you. In a second call, the defendant stated that the person did not want to terminate the pregnancy. Verdejo Sánchez never mentioned the name of Rodríguez Ortiz, according to what he testified.
Ricardo noticed a “desperate” tone in Verdejo’s voice during that last communication, so he told him to be calm and to take him as an example, since he has three children. To which, according to the witness, Verdejo Sánchez replied “that he and I were not the same, that he was a public figure, that he did not want to lose his family.”
He sold kilos of cocaine with Verdejo Sánchez
Ricardo said that he met the former boxer between 2016 and 2017. Both shared their love of sports and their friendship “was always good.”
But it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic started that they started working together. According to his testimony, Ricardo indicated that they sold “kilos of cocaine” on at least three occasions.
“I received a call from a friend, (and) Félix was next to me. When I hung up I asked (Verdejo Sánchez) if (he knew anyone) who could get me (cocaine). He told me yes,” he said of the first time they did a drug deal. “The next day (Verdejo) arrived with the kilo and we made the sale.”
The buyer, Ricardo said, paid $24,000, of which he got $500 and the remaining $23,500 went to Verdejo Sánchez. This was repeated on at least three occasions, according to the witness, who would have sold drugs earlier in his adolescence, “but not kilos like that.”
“The friend would arrive, give me the money and Félix would wait in the bus,” he explained about his roles in the transactions, for which they communicated by prepaid phones that changed monthly.
Agreement with prosecutor
Ricardo Cádiz Martínez agreed to testify after reaching a cooperation agreement, on May 17, 2023, with the federal Prosecutor’s Office to submit a guilty plea for one count of conspiracy for possession of controlled substances with the intent to distribute them. Before the presentation of the signed agreement in court, Ricardo Cádiz Martínez acknowledged that a judge will determine his sentence (and that the judge is not obliged to follow the sentencing guidelines stipulated in the agreement).
In addition, you agreed to give a truthful, complete and correct testimony. He also assured that he understood that he is not required to make a case against a person, only to tell the truth, and that the consequences of not doing so could include charges of perjury, giving false testimony, making false statements and obstruction of justice.
“I want justice to be done and my name cleared. And when the judge gives me the time, I will complete the sentence and reunite with my family, ”he expressed about the reasons for accepting the agreement.
To questions from defense attorney Jason González Delgado, the 31-year-old man acknowledged that he had been accused after confessing to the crime, as part of his collaboration in multiple interviews with federal authorities.
Verdejo Sánchez faces federal charges for armed robbery of a vehicle (“carjacking”) that resulted in the death of a person, kidnapping that resulted in a death, and for the murder of an unborn person, since Rodríguez Ortiz had a month of pregnancy He was also charged with carrying a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
Keep reading:
Félix Verdejo gave $300 to a woman with whom he had a secret relationship to have an abortion
Lawyer for Félix Verdejo’s confessed sidekick in the murder of Keishla insists that the boxer’s “wife” has nothing to do with it
Who is Luis Antonio Cádiz Martínez, accused of helping Félix Verdejo kill Keishla Rodríguez in Puerto Rico