‘Grim reaper rapist’ tied to ‘brutal’ assaults now faces life in prison, Texas cops say
A convicted serial rapist identified by his grim reaper tattoo is now set to spend the rest of his life in prison, Texas officials said.
A Texas judge brought down a sweeping sentence for Adrian Tovar Martinez, 44, on Jan. 7. The judge gave him two life sentences for aggravated sexual assault and an additional 10-year sentence for obstruction and retaliation, the Aransas County Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Martinez, dubbed the “grim reaper rapist” by law enforcement, was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison connected to the sexual assault of another person in San Patricio County, officials said.
It took years to connect Martinez to the ”brutal” assault of a woman in Aransas Pass in October 2013, police said. Martinez attempted to make small talk with the woman before dragging her to a remote field and sexually assaulting her, officials said.
The woman dug her fingernails into the man during the reported assault and scratched him in an attempt to get his DNA under her nails, the attorney’s office said. Martinez bit her and threatened to kill her, officials said.
He threatened to kill the woman if she reported the assault to police, officials said. However, the attorney’s office said the woman made it to a Stripes convenience store where the clerk called 911.
Officers photographed the woman’s injuries all over her body and saw her blood-stained and ripped clothes, officials said. They later found the woman’s socks and Martinez’s underwear at the scene of the attack, according to the attorney’s office.
Though Martinez was a stranger to the woman, she told police about one identifying trait: his tattoo of the grim reaper, officials said.
Investigators searched for the man with the tattoo. DNA collected from under the woman’s fingernails couldn’t be linked to a suspect, so the case went cold, prosecutors said.
However, two other women reported rapes found to be connected to Martinez in the years after, police told McClatchy News in 2022.
One occurred in the Houston area while the most recent was in Aransas Pass, police said.
Martinez was identified by investigators in 2021 when investigators matched the case’s DNA to Martinez’s DNA collected in his case in San Patricio, according to prosecutors.
He was arrested and charged in 2022, McClatchy News reported, but prosecutors said his case was delayed for two years.
All three victims testified against Martinez during his trial, prosecutors said.
One woman said she attempted to run from the man, but officials said she was dragged and assaulted in her Houston home while her 4-year-old son was inside, according to the attorney’s office.
In San Patricio County, one woman said she was sexually assaulted by Martinez, who she said she had been in a relationship with, while their 5-month-old child was in the same bed, prosecutors said.
Martinez’s sentences in Aransas County will be served following the completion of his 20-year sentence in San Patricio County.
Aransas Pass is about 20-mile drive northeast from Corpus Christi and about a 200-mile drive southwest from Houston.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM with the headline "‘Grim reaper rapist’ tied to ‘brutal’ assaults now faces life in prison, Texas cops say."
