The Manatee County Sheriff's Office has announced the long-awaited arrest of a suspect in the murder of a man at the Sunshine Skyway South Fishing Pier, a case that had remained unresolved for nearly two years. Alex Martinez, aged 34, was captured by the US Marshals Task Force in Plant City on Monday, ending a search that followed the 2022 incident where 26-year-old Diomicio Primitivo Ibarra-Hernandez was fatally shot.
According to FOX 13, the circumstances surrounding Ibarra-Hernandez's death were rooted in a drug transaction gone awry. Martinez had purportedly agreed to meet with the victim to purchase marijuana. The exchange quickly spiraled into violence, resulting in Ibarra-Hernandez being found dead with gunshot wounds inside a parked car. Detectives believe that following the murder, Martinez had managed to perpetually evade capture until recently relocating to Hillsborough County in January.
According to the official release from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, following his arrest, Alex Martinez was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail. He now faces several charges, including felony murder with a firearm, failure to obey a written promise to appear, and providing false information to law enforcement, as detailed by News Channel 8. Martinez is slated to be extradited to Manatee County at a later date to face these charges.
