Ramiro Martinez, a 48-year-old Hispanic man, was killed in his Rosenberg, Texas, home on September 11, 2020. His death, initially reported as the result of a home invasion, was later revealed to be a murder plot orchestrated by his own wife.
On the day of the murder, police responded to a call from Irene Banda, Martinez’s wife, who claimed that masked intruders had broken into their home. Officers arrived to find Martinez dead in the master bedroom from gunshot wounds to his back and head. Banda told investigators the intruders had tied her up, but her story had inconsistencies. She gave conflicting accounts of how she was bound and how she escaped to a neighbor’s house. The investigation soon uncovered surveillance footage showing a red Hyundai Veloster, later found to have been rented by a suspect, leaving the neighborhood along with Martinez's stolen truck.
More than a month after the killing, authorities arrested 32-year-old Jorge Castellanos at a Texas border
checkpoint in October 2020. For years, the case progressed slowly until Castellanos confessed to detectives in February 2024. He detailed a murder plot planned with Irene Banda and her brother, Arnold DeLeon. Castellanos claimed the group had discussed abuse that Banda alleged she was suffering. He said the plan was for him and DeLeon to kill Martinez in exchange for his guns, watches, and optics.
According to Castellanos, DeLeon provided Banda with pills to drug her husband. On the night of the murder, Banda let the two men into the house and left a handgun on the floor for them. Castellanos told police a struggle broke out in the bedroom between DeLeon and Martinez, during which DeLeon shot Martinez in the back. Castellanos said he then took the gun and shot Martinez in the head. Before they left, Castellanos poured bleach on the body to destroy evidence and loosely tied Banda with a cord to support her home invasion story.
Following the confession, Irene Deleon Banda, then 57, was arrested in March 2024 and charged with capital murder. Both she and Castellanos later accepted plea deals. Banda, 59, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Jorge Castellanos pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 60 years in prison, bringing the case to a close.
