Man sentenced to 44 years for murder, child abuse

A man who killed a young mother in the presence of her 2-year-old daughter has been sentenced Friday to 44 years in prison.

According to a release, 27-year-old Victor Abraham Martinez, Jr. has been sentenced to aggravated terms for second degree murder and child abuse. Martinez will never qualify for early release.

“We are grateful for the imposition of aggravated penalties for the unspeakably cruel and heinous acts of this defendant,” said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery in a release. “While today’s sentence represents a measure of justice for this terrible crime, our hearts go out to Christina’s family and her daughter, who have suffered an irreplaceable loss.”

On Jan. 4, 2010, Martinez former girlfriend, Christina Hallman, made arrangements to stop by his house to pick up a few of her daughter’s toys. As the two started conversing in Hallman’s car regarding their relationship, Martinez pulled out a handgun and shot her six times in the head.

Martinez subsequently drove the vehicle to the nearby Bunzl Phoenix warehouse of Tempe. Employees who began arriving around 3 a.m. on Jan. 5 assumed Hallman was a drunk driver sleeping in her car. Approximately five hours later, two employees discovered Hallman’s daughter holding her mother’s body.

Grand Jurors of Maricopa County indicted Martinez for one count of first degree murder and one count of child abuse on Jan. 12, 2012. Martinez was instead convicted of second degree murder because the jury could not agree on the initial charge of first degree murder.