Oregon Man Sentenced to 25 Years for Stabbing Romantic Rival Through the Heart

Eliazar Martinez-Rodriguez, 35, was sentenced to 25 years for fatally stabbing Jefferson Cates in a jealousy-driven attack in Oregon City in June 2024.

Oregon City Man Gets 25-Year Prison Term for Jealousy-Fueled Fatal Stabbing

An Oregon man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for stabbing a romantic rival through the heart after discovering the two were involved with the same woman, Law & Crime reports.

Eliazar Martinez-Rodriguez, 35, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for the June 2024 killing of Jefferson Cates, 30, at an apartment complex in Oregon City. He received an additional sentence for a separate assault he committed while awaiting trial in jail, bringing his total term to 300 months.

The Clackamas County District Attorney's Office described the stabbing as "an act motivated by jealousy." Martinez-Rodriguez and Cates had both been romantically involved with the same woman, who lived at the Crown Court apartments on Southeast 97th Avenue in Oregon City. Martinez-Rodriguez was unaware that the woman had also been intimate with Cates.

On June 22, 2024, the woman and Cates returned to her apartment and encountered Martinez-Rodriguez. Cates, unsettled by Martinez-Rodriguez's behavior, walked away. Martinez-Rodriguez later tracked him down elsewhere in the complex and attacked him. Witnesses reported hearing a "blood-curdling scream" as Cates was being stabbed.

"Martinez-Rodriguez … stabbed Cates in the heart," the DA's press release states.

At Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Cates' mother, Lynette Brunson, addressed the court directly.

"I carry Jefferson's ashes with me every day, but you carry his blood on your hands," Brunson told Martinez-Rodriguez.

Brunson also described the lasting physical toll the killing had taken on her. "The violent and vicious manner in which Mr. Martinez-Rodriguez murdered Jefferson by stabbing him in the heart … caused me to have recurring nightmares resulting in high blood pressure, a stroke and heart damage called takotsubo cardiomyopathy … nicknamed 'broken-heart syndrome,'" she said. "Because that is exactly what Mr. Martinez-Rodriguez has done, breaking not only my heart, but the hearts of everyone who knew and loved Jefferson."

At the time of the killing, Martinez-Rodriguez was on supervised release from federal prison following a firearms conviction. He had violated the terms of that release by leaving the Northwest Regional Re-Entry Center in Portland, where he had been ordered to reside. After being arrested and returned to federal court, a judge allowed him to remain out of custody and go back to the re-entry center — a decision Brunson said still weighs on her.

"The federal judge's decision 'to let Mr. Martinez-Rodriguez out of custody literally haunts me,'" she said.

While held at the Clackamas County Jail pending trial, Martinez-Rodriguez attacked a fellow inmate without provocation in May. He struck the prisoner with a "barrage of 50 or 60 punches to the head and face," according to the DA's office, leaving him on the ground "with a bloody face and struggling to breathe." The injured inmate was transported by ambulance to a hospital and survived.

Martinez-Rodriguez received 230 months for the manslaughter conviction and 70 months for the assault conviction, for a combined total of 300 months.

Source: Law & Crime