A 38-year-old man received a prison term of more than 33 years Tuesday for the murder of an ex-girlfriend’s husband last year in a south Minneapolis parking lot.
Man receives 33-year sentence for shooting victim in the back in Minneapolis parking lot
As Ricardo Pena Martinez walked away from the SUV, he was shot in the back, according to the criminal complaint.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 17, 2024 at 8:40PM
Orky Xayachack, of Minneapolis, was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to shooting Ricardo Pena Martinez in the back on the morning of Nov. 20, 2023.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Xayachack is expected to serve the first 20⅔ years of his 33⅓-year term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Xayachack’s criminal history in Minnesota includes a conviction in 2016 for terroristic threats stemming from when he confronted a woman and fired a gunshot into the floor inside a Minneapolis home after she had broken up with him.
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers responded to a report of a shooting about 9:25 a.m. and saw Martinez down in a parking lot in the 1900 block of Chicago Avenue S. with a gunshot wound to his back.
A woman told police she saw the shooting from her apartment window. She gave police a description of the shooter and the SUV he drove from the scene.
Video surveillance showed the SUV stop on the street and Martinez walking toward the vehicle. As Martinez walked away from the SUV, he was shot in the back.
Martinez’s wife identified Xayachack to police as the shooter. She said she and Martinez had been married for several years but with periods of separation. It was during one time they were apart, she said, that she moved in with Xayachack.
At some point, the woman reconciled with Martinez and ended her relationship with Xayachack, who was angry about her decision.
Before the shooting, Xayachack sent the woman a text threatening to kill her and Martinez along with photos of a gun. After the shooting, Xayachack sent the woman a text admitting to the killing.
About 2:35 p.m. on the day of the shooting, police in St. Paul found the SUV parked at the home of the vehicle’s owner. Xayachack soon showed up in a car. Xayachack followed the SUV to a gas station, where Xayachack was arrested with a gun in his pocket that was the same make and caliber as the one he photographed.
The autism centers in St. Cloud and Minneapolis are quiet, locked and in one case, appears to have moved out of its former therapy site.
