Metro

Arrest in fashion student’s 2009 murder

A  Queens man was ordered held Thursday on murder and several other felony charges after cops said they’d solved the brutal four-year-old slaying of a Fashion Institute of Technology coed.

Jose Martinez stared straight ahead and pleaded not guilty  as outraged relatives of Carmen Saldana-Mundo  glared at him in Queens criminal court.

“I feel a lot of  anger, a lot of frustration,” said Susana Saldana, mother of the victim, before the arraignment. “It’s something you can’t describe.”

She had a pained look on her face as Martinez, dressed all in green, with black boots and wearing a leg chain, was walked past family members in a hallway outside the courtroom.

Investigators said Martinez  followed Saldana-Mundo home from a Long Island City party in July 2009, pushed his way into her Astoria apartment, sexually attacked her and strangled her.

Jose Martinez

“He could tell she was drunk. He offered to help. She would not let him into the apartment. He kicked his way in,” Assistant District Attorney Kristin Papadopoulos said in court.

“She hit him in the groin and tried to run. He threw her into the wall” and she passed out, the prosecutor added. “He puts his hands around her neck and choked her until she was dead.”

Susana Saldana said it didn’t matter that Martinez initially tried to help her daughter.

“Does that give him the right to rape her, asphyxiate her? He is an animal,” she said.

Papadopoulos said Martinez claims he was 15 at the time of the murder. But police records list him as 30 now.

The victim’s family believe he’s lying in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.

“He doesn’t look 15. I’m 34 and he looks older than me,” said the victim’s brother Carlos. “I just want him to pay for what he did to my sister.”

Martinez was already behind bars, serving time for robbery, when he was identified as the perpetrator through DNA evidence, according to a law enforcement source.

He was charged with murder, kidnapping, predatory sexual burglary, unlawful imprisonment and possession of stolen property. He is due back in court Nov. 20.