Defendants to get separate trials in New Mexico girl's death

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge has ruled that three defendants charged in last year's death of a young New Mexico girl will be tried separately. Authorities say Victoria Martens was strangled to death on her 10th birthday last August before being dismembered and her remains set on fire. The girl's mother, the mother's boyfriend and the boyfriend's cousin each are charged jointly in the rape and murder case. Albuquerque police say the three suspects drugged, raped, killed and dismembered the child in an apartment. Police found the girl's body in a bathtub, wrapped in a smoldering blanket. A District Court judge ruled Tuesday that each trial will be held in Bernalillo County. Defense attorneys had requested that the trials be moved to another county because of intense media coverage of the high-profile case. ___ Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com