Verdict reached in trial of man charged in hotel murder over drugs, failed CashApp payment
A Sedgwick County jury on Friday found a 32-year-old guilty of murdering a man who tried to pay him $60 to settle a drug debt using CashApp — then got mad when the payment didn’t go through.
Patricio S. Gomez will be sentenced Feb. 21 in the fatal shooting of 42-year-old Michael Martinez of Wichita, who police have said was shot in Room 207 of the Extended Stay America at 9450 E. Corporate Hills Drive on Sept. 30, 2021, after a drug transaction that soured. A probable cause affidavit released by the court says Gomez went to the room with a woman and opened fire on Martinez after an electronic payment he attempted to make with his cellphone failed. That woman, Shae M. Roberts, was also charged in the case.
After the shooting, Gomez and Roberts fled in a black Cadillac that was later found at a Park City hotel, authorities have said.
Gomez was on the run until U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents caught him last March when his truck got stuck in the Rio Grande River along the Texas-Mexico border after he tried driving through it to re-enter the United States.
Jurors found Gomez guilty of murdering Martinez and of one count of attempting to distribute methamphetamine, court records show. They acquitted him of one count of attempting to commit an aggravated robbery, the records say.
Earlier in the week, as his trial was underway, Gomez pleaded guilty to a count of criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, said by email.
The trial started Monday.
