Man guilty of murdering flatmate in ‘vicious and frenzied attack fuelled by jealousy’

Police say man had assaulted stranger for ‘looking at his girlfriend’ in days before killing

Carlos Velez stabbed his flatmate David Martinez with a kitchen knife inside the flat they shared in east London last year (PA)

A 20-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering his flatmate in a “vicious and frenzied attack fuelled by pure jealousy and possessiveness”.

Carlos Velez stabbed 26-year-old David Martinez with a kitchen knife inside the flat they shared in Leytonstone, east London last year after he suspected the man had kissed his girlfriend.

Mr Martinez texted a cousin that Velez was acting “all crazy and was asking if I had kissed his girlfriend” on the day of the killing.

He later added that he needed to leave the property soon in case his flatmate murdered him.

Prosecutor Edward Brown QC told jurors that Mr Martinez had been killed “for no good reason at all”.

“He was killed at the hands of this defendant — and was a victim of this defendant’s possessive and short-tempered nature,” Mr Brown said.

Police said Velez had punched a man in his 60s for looking at his girlfriend in the days leading up to the murder and had aggressively confronted a neighbour he believed was interested in her.

The 20-year-old had also slapped his girlfriend during an argument in which he demanded to be told more about a conversation she had with Mr Martinez.

The court heard Mr Martinez suffered multiple knife wounds to the head, shoulder, chest and thigh as well as defensive cuts to his hands.

Velez fled to Portsmouth to stay with friends after the attack but was arrested by police officers who had stopped him for riding a bicycle on the hard shoulder of the M27 and later realised he was wanted for murder.

“This was a vicious and frenzied attack fuelled by pure jealousy and possessiveness,” Devi Kharran, CPS Senior Crown Prosecutor, said in a statement on the murder.

“David Martinez was murdered inside his own home where he should have been safe.

“The tragedy of this case lies in the knowledge that David was aware that his life could be in danger and had plans to move out of the flat.”

Mr Kharran added that Velez changed his story “numerous times” during interviews with the police and attempted to blame the killing on his girlfriend at one point.

He will be sentenced on Friday at the Old Bailey.

Additional reporting by PA