DNA from cigarette helps crack 2006 double murder

DNA from a cigarette butt helped detectives in Central Florida crack a 2006 double-murder cold case.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday said an Alabama murder suspect has confessed to fatally shooting Javier Huerta, 20, and Gustavo Olivares-Rivas, 28, in the Ocala-area nearly seven years ago.

Identified from DNA on the cigarette, murder suspect Jose Martinez, 50, is being held in Alabama on charges from an unrelated homicide, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said.

The bodies of the two Volusia County men were found near the Marion-Lake County Line on State Road 19 just north of State Road 40 after they were killed on Nov. 8, 2006.

The victims, both of Pierson in northwest Volusia County, were found inside a black 2006 Nissan Titan 4 door pickup.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office said tests were performed Feb. 27 on a cigarette butt found in the truck and the DNA was linked to Martinez of Moulton, Ala.

Martinez was picked up in Yuma County, Arizona and extradited to Alabama for a first-degree murder charge in that state.

"Major Crimes Detective T. Watts traveled to Alabama to interview Martinez, where he gave a full confession of the killings and intimate details that only the killer would have known," the Marion County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. "The State Attorney's Office issued a warrant for two counts of First Degree Murder for Martinez."

The Sheriff's Office "placed a hold on Martinez pending the outcome of the charges in Alabama," the agency said.

The slain men were close friends.

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DNA from cigarette helps crack 2006 double murder