The Antoinette Martinez case is a 2014 San Antonio double murder in which Martinez, then nineteen, and her boyfriend Cameo Clines lured two young men to her apartment with the promise of sex, robbed them, drove them to remote fields in Bexar County, and shot them in the head. Martinez was convicted of capital murder in September 2017 and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. Clines pleaded guilty in 2016 to two counts of murder and received two concurrent life sentences with a consecutive twenty-year term.
The Two Victims
The first victim was twenty-year-old Xavier Cordero Jr., the son of San Antonio police detective Xavier Cordero Sr.1San Antonio Express-News. S.A. Woman Found Guilty of Capital Murder Martinez knew him from a prior relationship. On June 18, 2014, she invited him to her apartment. Once he arrived, Clines held him at gunpoint. The two bound Cordero with packing tape, put him in the trunk of his own Mitsubishi Lancer, and drove him to a field near Lake Braunig in southeast Bexar County, where Clines shot him in the head.2Oxygen. Antoinette Martinez Cameo Clines Guilty Texas Killing Spree Cordero was killed one week before his twenty-first birthday, and his body was found face-down in the field that same day.3San Antonio Express-News. Murder Victims Parents Slam Killer
A week later, on June 25, 2014, Martinez used the dating app MeetMe to lure nineteen-year-old Steven Rendon to the same apartment.2Oxygen. Antoinette Martinez Cameo Clines Guilty Texas Killing Spree Rendon was an aspiring mechanic whose customized bright orange Mitsubishi Lancer his mother later called his “pride and joy.”4San Antonio Express-News. Slaying Victim’s Unique Car Could Solve Case The pattern repeated. He was bound with tape, driven to a rural area in south Bexar County, and shot. His body was found in a cornfield five days later with a gunshot wound to his neck.1San Antonio Express-News. S.A. Woman Found Guilty of Capital Murder
The motive was money and cars. Detective Jesse Luna testified that Martinez told investigators she and Clines targeted the men to cover her rent. On videotape, she said, “I always get what I want.”5San Antonio Express-News. Video Shows San Antonio Woman Detailing Plan
How They Were Caught
On June 18, 2014, the same day Cordero was killed, Martinez reported a gunman had robbed the Burger King where she was working alone, taking more than $750. Under questioning, she admitted the robbery was staged with a co-worker and that the two had spent the money on food and clothing. She was charged with theft and released on a $1,600 bond.6KSAT. Burger King Robbery Suspect Now Charged With Capital Murder
The break in the murder investigation came from Clines. On June 29, 2014, he walked into a Shop-N-Go Food Mart on South New Braunfels Avenue, pretended to ask for a job, shot the clerk in the face, and fled with cash. A witness followed him to a nearby apartment complex, and after roughly an hour-long standoff, he surrendered. Martinez was inside the apartment when he was taken into custody.7San Antonio Express-News. Police: Man Asked for Job Then Shot Clerk in Face During questioning, both confessed to the murders of Cordero and Rendon. Martinez’s bond on the capital murder charges was set at one million dollars.6KSAT. Burger King Robbery Suspect Now Charged With Capital Murder
What Happened to Cameo Clines
On January 12, 2016, Clines pleaded guilty under a plea agreement. The capital murder charges were dropped, and he instead pleaded guilty to two counts of murder for Cordero and Rendon, along with two counts of aggravated assault with bodily injury from a separate burglary case. District Judge Mary Roman sentenced him the next day to two concurrent life terms for the murders and a consecutive twenty-year sentence for the assault charges.3San Antonio Express-News. Murder Victims Parents Slam Killer The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has placed his earliest possible parole date in June 2044.8San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio Cameo Clines Snapped
At sentencing, Xavier Cordero Sr. told Clines, “You did not get the punishment you deserve. You deserve death as well,” and said his family would oppose any future parole. Steven Rendon’s mother, Cathy Chavez, told him, “You destroyed me. You destroyed our family. You had no right to take away two beautiful boys from us.”9Fox San Antonio. Emotional Day in Court as Victims Families Face Killer
The Trial
Martinez’s trial began in September 2017 in the 175th state District Court in San Antonio before Judge Catherine Torres-Stahl. Assistant district attorneys Josh Somers and Mari Janssen prosecuted; defense attorney Mark McKay represented Martinez. The state did not seek the death penalty, so a capital murder conviction would carry an automatic sentence of life without parole.1San Antonio Express-News. S.A. Woman Found Guilty of Capital Murder
The prosecution’s central piece of evidence was Martinez’s three-hour videotaped confession. She described luring both victims, walked through the robberies and killings, and called herself and Clines “Bonnie and Clyde.” She also admitted she had told Clines to shoot Cordero a second time to “make sure” he was dead.1San Antonio Express-News. S.A. Woman Found Guilty of Capital Murder Prosecutors also introduced the .25 caliber pistol identified as the weapon in both murders, recovered along with the victims’ belongings from the apartment where the pair was arrested.
The defense called Clines himself. He testified that he was the shooter, that he had manipulated Martinez, and that she believed the plan was only to rob the men.10KSAT. Convicted Killer to Testify for Co-Defendant He also said he had deliberately left evidence in her apartment to implicate her. McKay told the jury Martinez was “blinded by her love” for Clines and had told police a “grandiose story” to protect him, describing her as a young woman who “falls in love with a guy and does stupid stuff.”11San Antonio Express-News. S.A. Woman Found Guilty of Capital Murder Prosecutor Josh Somers argued both defendants were trying to shift blame and that the evidence showed Martinez was a willing planner.12KSAT. Woman Convicted of Capital Murder in Execution-Style Killings
On September 19, 2017, the jury deliberated about two hours before finding Martinez guilty of two counts of capital murder. She received the automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole. She was twenty-two.12KSAT. Woman Convicted of Capital Murder in Execution-Style Killings
The Dispute Over Who Was Behind It
Who drove the killings has remained contested. The defense cast Martinez as a naive teenager under the influence of a violent boyfriend; the prosecution called her the architect who set up the victims and told Clines to finish Cordero off. Each has, at different times, pointed at the other.
In a 2025 prison interview for the Oxygen program Snapped: Behind Bars, Clines spoke publicly about the case for the first time and claimed Martinez had “taken advantage” of him, saying he had been “under her spell” and that she “unconsciously baited me in.”13Oxygen. Cameo Clines Prison Interview About His Brutal 2014 Murders Former prosecutor Marilisa Janssen, appearing in the same episode, said Martinez was the primary instigator and urged the victims’ families to attend any future parole hearings to oppose Clines’s release.8San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio Cameo Clines Snapped Martinez did not participate in the episode. Unlike Clines, she has no possibility of parole.