Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Anthony A. Caputo, director of the New Brunswick Police Department, announced today that a 32-year-old New Brunswick man remains in custody on charges of fatally stabbing another city resident during a dispute at a restaurant over the weekend.
Edgar Martinez was charged with murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose,and unlawful possession of a weapon in the death on July 4, 2015 of Jovanni Garcia-Elvira, 20.
Martinez was apprehended while walking on Joyce Kilmer Avenue in New Brunswick, shortly after fatally stabbing the victim at El Costeno, a restaurant on Suydam Street.
The defendant is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick in lieu of $2 million bail.
The arrest was made during an investigation by Detective Thierry Lemmerling of the New Brunswick Police Department and Detective Gregory Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation determined that the two men were involved in a dispute that ended when the victim was stabbed multiple times at 4:09 a.m.
He was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. on July 4, 2015.
An autopsy performed by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the victim died from multiple stab wounds.
The investigation is active and is continuing.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Lemmerling of the New Brunswick Police Department at (732) 745-5200, or Detective Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-4054.