'Florida Man Murders' New Series Features the Case of Landy Martinez, Who Was Tortured and Killed by Ex-Boyfriend

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Jan 12, 2021 03:21 AM EST

Nine years ago, then 28-year-old Jose Adame was accused of fatally shooting his ex-boyfriend, Landy Martinez, who pleaded for his life.

In an audio obtained by Oxygen for its new series "Florida Man Murders," a man was heard frantically saying, "help me, help me. They want to kill me."

It was part of the disturbing call received by a Pinellas County 911 dispatcher on December 21, 2010. The dispatcher asked for the caller's address but got no answer. Two gunshots were then heard, and then the line went dead.

A cellphone was used to contact 911, which caused the authorities not to have an exact address of the victim. The police then had to narrow a location down using cellphone tower information, which led them to St. Petersburg, Florida. Authorities then went door-to-door, asking if residents had heard anything unusual.

About 40 minutes after the first phone call that authorities received, another 911 call was received.

Crime Scene of Landy Martinez' Murder

A woman reported she was worried because she was not able to reach her roommate, Landy Martinez. She said that when she checked their security cameras online, there was no reception.

She requested the police to do a welfare check. Her address was on the same street that authorities had been canvassing to search for the man in distress.

Upon reaching Martinez's home, police discovered that the roommate was right that the security cameras had been cut. The house was ransacked, and different areas of the house were broken and off the track.

Authorities then found Landy Martinez in the bedroom dead as he had been shot twice - in the head and chest. According to an autopsy report, Martinez also had knife wounds and burns on his eyes and throat from exposure to Drano liquid plumber.

Adame allegedly held Martinez a prisoner and tortured him before shooting him based on Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, as reported by Tampa Bay Times. A defense attorney claimed that Adame's nephew was involved, saying that it was the nephew who delivered the finishing shot to Martinez.

Reports said police found a cellphone inside the room where Martinez's body was found, and it turned out it belonged to him. In the phone, authorities saw a video of kneeling Martinez, bound with duct tape, tortured, and pleading for his life inside the bathroom.

He was crying and could be heard saying "please" in Spanish, asking not to kill him. Police believed that Martinez used this phone to call 911 when he was able to escape somehow and then hid it under the bedroom's mattress.

Martinez, who was born in Cuba, had moved to Miami to live with his father. After he turned 18, he came out to his loved ones as gay. He eventually moved to St. Petersburg and worked as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home in Tampa.

The Story Behind Landy Martinez' Murder

Martinez's roommates revealed that the victim had been dating someone new named Jonathan Galacia. His roommates said that they were dating for about a month.

Galacia was then interviewed by the police, saying that he was home alone on the morning of the murder. He added that he had been trying to call Martinez.

Upon investigation, authorities found out that Galacia had been jealous of Adame. And before the night of the murder, Martinez offered to prove Adame was out of the picture. But the next morning, Galacia then received odds texts from Martinez, saying that he was going back to Adame.

Adame immediately became the top suspect, but he told the police that he was in North Carolina at the time of the murder. When police checked Adame's cellphone location, it locked off on the same cellphone tower as Martinez's the morning of the murder.

Since the police had solid proof he was indeed in St. Petersburg, Adame was then charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, according to an Associated Press report. Police did not charge the 16-year-old relative of Adame, accused of shooting the victim.