Sunnyvale detective goes undercover as busboy to nab child-rape cold case suspect

Hutchison showed up at 11 a.m. in a bright green shirt with the name of an Irish whisky on it, ready to work as a busboy. He's 38, but said, People tell me I look younger.'

In March 1996, a 7-year-old girl identified as Jane Doe in court documents was at home with family members when she answered the phone in the kitchen and spoke with a man who said he was a doctor, according to a court filing by a Sunnyvale police detective.

When the caller asked for her address, she told him. She also answered a second call soon after, believed to be from the same man, who told her he was nearby and she should sneak out without telling her family. Outside, the man met her and led her into a side yard, where he raped her, Sunnyvale Det. Matthew Hutchison wrote in the filing.

The girl was examined, and her clothing was sent for testing, which showed a DNA profile from a male. But there was no one in the FBI’s DNA database matching that profile.

Then in March of last year, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office cold-case unit, through DNA and genealogical records — like those used to catch Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo — identified a possible pool of suspects: the sons of a woman who may have lived in or around Sunnyvale.

Hutchison found an archived obituary for the mother in the Mercury News. It said she had given birth to seven male children, with one dying as an infant.

Using police databases, he discovered that two of the surviving sons had died as adults. Of the remaining sons, one was living in Santa Clara, one in Milpitas and two in San Jose.

But although a full DNA profile had been extracted from the girl’s underwear, none of the sons’ DNA profiles were in law enforcement databases. Using discarded items left in public places by three of the brothers, Hutchison was able to obtain their DNA and rule them out as suspects.

That left one man “as the last living brother whose DNA could be directly compared to the suspect profile,” Hutchison wrote.

However, said Rob Baker, the deputy DA who runs the cold-case team, the suspect presented a problem. “Cops, usually they’ll surveil guys and try to get their trash when they leave it behind,” Baker said Wednesday. “He lived in an apartment complex, with communal trash. He didn’t really have a regular job. He was retired. The success of this case was due to the creative thinking of Detective Matt Hutchison.”

Hutchison, speaking by phone Wednesday, said he knew that with only 10 detectives in the Sunnyvale department, he’d have a hard time getting approval to tail the suspect for days and days in hopes of gathering something he dropped that might have DNA on it. But on social media, he hit paydirt earlier this year, learning that the suspect and his brothers would meet every St. Patrick’s Day at the same Irish pub in Santa Clara County.

That was in about two weeks.

The cold case team obtained a warrant, and the bar owner agreed to let them run an operation. Hutchison showed up at 11 a.m. in a bright green shirt with the name of an Irish whisky on it, ready to work as a busboy. He’s 38, but said, “People tell me I look younger.” The owner told other employees to help him out because he was new.

A half dozen of Hutchison’s detective colleagues were in the bar in plainclothes to help him and back him up in case of trouble. Hutchison worked. The team, acting as patrons, waited. And waited. And at just before 6 p.m., with the barroom crowded with noisy celebrants, the man walked in. Hutchison had seen pictures of the suspect, but never laid eyes on him. “I recognized him immediately,” Hutchison said.

The man was joined by another brother and a handful of family members. For three hours, Hutchison performed his two jobs, as policeman, and busboy. “I was all over the restaurant busing tables at every section, busing tables, running food, looking like I was working, while all the time watching his table from the corner of my eye,” Hutchison said.

Over the hours, with colleagues helping him identify items they believed only the suspect touched, Hutchison collected half-eaten hot wings, a beer cup, two plastic straws, and other items, bringing them to the back and slipping them into evidence bags.

The Santa Clara County Crime Lab extracted DNA from the suspect’s discarded items, and the California Department of Justice’s lab matched it to the underwear of the 7-year-old girl, Hutchison wrote.

Martinez, of San Jose, is being held without bail, and faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 31.

Hutchison, according to assistant DA Baker, has solved eight cold cases, including six homicides and two sexual assaults. “The numbers and the work that he’s put in are just beyond anything that I’ve ever seen,” Baker said. “He’s probably solved more cold cases than any other detective in the county in modern history.”