A Phoenix woman has pleaded guilty to the 2022 killing of a 39-year-old sex worker whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase along a North Phoenix trail, closing out a death penalty case that had stretched on for nearly four years. Crystal Hulsey, now 37, entered guilty pleas Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court to first-degree felony murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and aggravated assault in the death of Jennifer Lynn Beede.
The plea deal removed capital punishment as a sentencing option for Hulsey, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office confirmed the shift in the case's status, saying simply, “This is no longer a death penalty case.” Her co-defendant, 36-year-old Jose Jaquez, also pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to life in prison.
Beede's remains were discovered by a bicyclist around 6:45 a.m. on September 17, 2022, roughly 100 yards off a trail near Ashler Hills Drive and 40th Street, with a head and knee protruding from the suitcase, according to AP News. Court records show Hulsey and Jaquez had transported Beede to the remote North Phoenix area, where she was left inside the suitcase near Cave Creek Road and Carefree Highway after being shot in the head. Police reports indicate Jaquez placed a dog leash around Beede's neck during the attack.
A Chance Meeting Turned Deadly
According to a 363-page Phoenix Police Department investigation report described by 12News, the fatal encounter began with a chance meeting among the three at a Phoenix gas station before moving to a hotel. Police reports cited in that investigation describe severe torture and indignities inflicted on Beede at the hotel before she was killed. Authorities noted that all three lived transient lifestyles out of Phoenix hotels, with Hulsey and Jaquez reportedly acting as handlers for Beede in sex work operations, per police reports.
Court records also show Hulsey and Jaquez committed additional violent crimes after the murder. Hours after Beede's body was dumped in the desert, the pair allegedly held a man they met on Tinder at gunpoint, stole his car and extorted his banking information, according to court records. The same reporting notes that investigators tracked the pair down after bank statements from that Tinder robbery victim revealed Cash App and Zelle transfers with partial usernames matching social media profiles operated by the suspects. The stolen vehicle was later recovered in Las Vegas.
Hulsey's plea also resolves multiple counts of auto theft, aggravated robbery, pandering, prostitution and narcotics possession stemming from the broader case. Initial charges against both Hulsey and Jaquez had included bestiality alongside first-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery, according to the same 12News investigation, illustrating the severity of the original allegations before negotiations narrowed the case.
A Former Officer's Shadow Over the Case
The investigation into Beede's death has run alongside a separate, closely watched case involving a Phoenix police officer. Internal Phoenix police records identified Michael Feliciano Martinez, an active-duty officer at the time, as one of the last people to see Beede alive, following an encounter at a Phoenix hotel less than two hours before her murder, per 12News. Martinez was never charged in connection with Beede's homicide.
Martinez resigned from the Phoenix Police Department in October 2022 after a solicitation arrest. He was later sentenced to prison in May, following a guilty plea to felony sexual abuse involving two women, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. That outlet reported that Martinez used his uniform, badge and patrol vehicle to target and detain women while on duty. Hoodline previously reported on his cuffed arrest after he pleaded guilty to those on-duty charges.
Case Reflects Wider Homicide Surge
Beede's murder occurred during a period when Maricopa County recorded 438 total homicides in 2022, the highest annual homicide victim total since the county began tracking such data in 1991, per 12News. Prosecutors had originally sought the death penalty against both Hulsey and Jaquez, filing notice in mid-2023 that cited the statutory aggravating factor that the killing was committed in an especially cruel, heinous or depraved manner, a legal threshold Arizona law requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to pursue capital punishment.
The years-long prosecution unfolded against a backdrop of shifting capital punishment policy in Arizona. The state experienced a mandated pause on executions starting in January 2023, when Governor Katie Hobbs ordered an independent review of lethal injection protocols following controversial past executions; state executions resumed in late 2024, according to the Arizona Capital Times. Had Hulsey been sentenced to death, she would have joined a small group of female death row inmates in the state — official data from the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry showed 107 inmates on death row as of January 2025, including three women housed at the ASPC-Perryville complex.
Jaquez's sentence of life in prison stands as the resolution on his end of the case, while Hulsey now awaits formal sentencing following her guilty plea, according to Maricopa County Attorney's Office, Maricopa County Superior Court and Phoenix Police Department records cited in the case.
