Jose Manuel Guzman to serve 38 years in prison for murdering sister

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The case is closed on the Canutillo man who murdered his sister in 2022, El Paso County District Attorney Bill Hicks announced today.

On February 2, 2022, Jose Manuel Guzman murdered his estranged sister, who became his lover, out of suspicion that she was romantically involved with another man.

Karla Marciela Marroquin Chavez de Ortiz was given up for adoption at birth. She grew up in Guatemala, and Guzman later smuggled her into the United States, along with her 12-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son, according to Hicks.

Guzman, Marroquin and the children lived in an apartment near Guzman's mother - Marroquin's birth mother - in Canutillo.

A romantic relationship between the two developed, before Guzman suspected Marroquin of seeing another individual. He then beat her to death using a baseball bat and a large handheld massager.

Guzman's ex-girlfriend, who says she was with him from approximately 2016 to 2018, spoke to ABC-7 and asked to remain anonymous for her own safety. She said she too was a victim of his violence.

"He started punching me closed fist. At the time I was very small, pretty petite, so it was pretty hard to fight off a muscular guy," the ex-girlfriend said. "The next day, (Guzman) apologized, made it seem like there was nothing, of course, like every toxic relationship. He said he loved me. He didn't want to lose me. I believed it."

She also said Guzman's family did nothing to stop his behavior.

"I currently have a friend that's very involved with talking to Jose still, and she had claimed to me as well that his family protects him a lot and that he, that they don't think anything that he did was wrong."

District Attorney Hicks noted that negotiating a plea deal allowed the state to control the outcome of the case, so they could ensure that justice was served.