In the early morning hours of April 30, 2023, the quiet of a Hobbs, New Mexico neighborhood was broken by the discovery of a man's body. Just outside his home, authorities found 59-year-old Marty Wade Stice, a resident of Seminole, Texas. It was approximately 2:30 a.m. when the Lea County Sheriff's Office was called to the scene, where they found Stice with significant trauma to his head.
The initial investigation into his death would soon reveal a violent end to his life.
An autopsy later confirmed what investigators had suspected; Marty Stice had been the victim of a homicide. The cause of his death was determined to be a gunshot wound. As the Lea County Sheriff's Office delved deeper into the circumstances surrounding the shooting, their investigation began to point toward a single suspect. The motive for the killing and the nature of the connection, if any, between Stice and his alleged attacker remained unclear to the public.
The investigation led to the arrest of 34-year-old Freddy Dominguez-Rodriguez of Hobbs. At the time detectives were ready to move forward with the murder charge, Dominguez-Rodriguez was already being held in custody on unrelated matters. An arrest warrant was issued, and he was subsequently charged with an open count of murder in connection with the death of Marty Wade Stice. In addition to the murder charge, he also faced accusations of tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and resisting, evading, or obstructing an officer, painting a picture of a complex series of events that culminated in a man losing his life.
