Jan. 28—More than six years after a 19-year-old man was fatally shot at a park in Northeast Albuquerque, police have made two arrests in the case.

Marco Martza and Daisy Ortiz, both 26, are each charged with an open count of murder in the April 30, 2017, death of Jon Paul Carabajal.

Ortiz was arrested Friday and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center, while Martza was already being held on unrelated charges.

It is unclear if either has an attorney.

Detectives zeroed in on the pair in late 2017, according to court records, identifying Martza’s car as the suspect’s vehicle and finding messages of Ortiz asking Carabajal to meet her before he was killed.

Martza also allegedly told a detective back then that he was regularly robbing drug dealers.

For reasons unknown, no more investigative steps were detailed in court documents until November 2023, when a different detective reinterviewed the pair and gathered more evidence.

Court records show that, in the years between, Martza racked up multiple arrests on gun, drug and auto theft charges.

On the day of the homicide, police responded around 2:40 a.m. to a shooting outside Stardust Skies Park and found Carabajal shot several times near his car. His pockets had been pulled inside out.

A Crown Victoria with a broken headlight was identified as the suspect vehicle from surveillance video.

Detectives found Facebook messages from his ex-girlfriend Ortiz asking Carabajal to meet her at the park, according to a complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Ortiz told police she had spoken with Carabajal but denied being involved in his death.

Police said Ortiz told them she was dating Martza.

Detectives learned Martza drove a Crown Victoria with a broken headlight and interviewed him when he was in jail on unrelated charges, according to the complaint. Martza told police he was robbing drug dealers and did so three times a month, using different types of guns to do so.

The complaint picked up in November 2023, when a different detective interviewed Ortiz, who told them she did ask Carabajal to sell her drugs the night he was killed.

Police said Ortiz told them she was with Martza at the time.

On Jan. 18, a detective interviewed Martza in jail and he denied knowing Carabajal well or being involved.

When asked about guns, he told detectives he had bought three guns online since 2019 and picked them all up from Ron Peterson’s Firearms, according to the complaint.

Police said they heard Martza talking to his mother in a jail call about throwing something away for him and where to find it. On Jan. 23, police searched the mother’s home and found two handguns.

Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said, through the investigation, detectives “concluded that Ortiz and Martza conspired to have Carabajal go to a specific location for the purpose of taking his money and narcotics.”

“Carabajal was shot and killed in the commission of the robbery,” he said.