A Riverside man accused of fatally beating his 31-year-old housemate with a hammer and shovel, then burying him behind their residence, was charged Friday with murder.
Richard Thomas Martinez, 48, was arrested Wednesday following a Riverside Police Department investigation into the death of Bradley Minder.
Along with murder, Martinez was charged with a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.
He was being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail and was slated to make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
According to Riverside police spokesman Officer Ryan Railsback, officers on Tuesday night received reports from an unidentified concerned party that Minder had not been seen in days, and the victim’s housemate, Martinez, “had made statements claiming he killed” the man.
Officers went to the men’s shared property in the 8700 block of Sylvan Drive, near Lake Street and a quarter-mile west of Riverside Municipal Airport, where a “search of the property revealed a possible crime scene in the backyard,” Railsback said.
He said homicide detectives were summoned to the location, as well as Riverside County sheriff’s cadaver dogs.
“The dogs alerted to freshly disturbed soil in the backyard,” the police spokesman said. “As detectives began digging the area, they found human remains.”
The body recovered from the makeshift grave was confirmed to be that of Minder, according to Railsback.
The initial investigation revealed there had been an unspecified altercation between Minder and Martinez sometime Tuesday, during which the latter armed himself with the implements and beat the victim to death, Railsback and court papers alleged.
The defendant was questioned and formally booked into custody in the predawn hours Wednesday.
He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.