Suspect in slaying initially said he was hired

link Matthew Jennings

The man accused of killing 23-year-old Ariel Ulibarri first told police he was hired by someone, but later changed his story and said he did it out of rage, according to Clovis Police Chief Steve Sanders.

Sanders said a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court Wednesday charging Matthew Jennings, 25, with murder doesn’t tell the whole story of the Clovis man’s confession.

In the complaint, Jennings is quoted as saying, “OK, what happened that day ... it’s just ... what happened to her ... it was just revenge ... someone asked me to do that.”

The complaint goes on to note, “Jennings went on to say how he was told by someone to do this to Ariel but would not say who had told him to do it because there was supposed to be money involved but he never got paid.”

Although it isn’t noted in the complaint, Sanders said Jennings later told investigators he stabbed Ulibarri to death because he was having a hard time in life and was filled with rage.

“She (Ulibarri) just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Sanders said.

Sanders said Jennings didn’t offer an explanation why he was in the Goodwin Trails park so early Nov. 9 when he stabbed Ulibarri multiple times. Police were called to the scene about 7:26 a.m.

Jennings told investigators “Ariel came out of nowhere and yelled some weird words at him and made a quick action which caused him to become very angry and offended so he stabbed her multiple times in her chest,” according to court records.

Jennings allegedly said he used his own knife, a weapon Sanders described as a hunting knife with a small compartment in the handle.

“Jennings recalls Ariel’s little boy running away and going back to (Ulibarri’s) ... white Grand Am after being told to ‘run,’” according to the complaint. “Jennings explained while he was stabbing Ariel he wanted her to die and Ariel said something to the effect of ‘don’t do it, don’t do it because I have an older brother who will kick your (…).’

“Jennings talked about how he was swinging the knife as hard as he could because he wanted her to die,” the complaint said.

“Jennings went on to talk about where he went after the incident and the route he took home.”

Jennings also showed investigators a scar on his hand, “describing it as ‘a big gash’ ... from the incident,” the complaint said. “Jennings described how he takes the knife everywhere with him and had discarded it at the park by throwing it into the ground which was consistent with the way it was found at the scene.”

Investigators matched blood on the knife with Jennings and Ulibarri, according to court records. The knife was discovered by Ulibarri’s family the morning after the homicide as investigators were assembling to make another sweep of the park to find the murder weapon, Sanders said.

Jennings was in Curry County jail on a probation violation charge when investigators with the Major Crimes Unit were notified about noon Monday by the state forensics lab of the positive DNA confirmation from blood on the knife.

Jennings has for at least the past two years lived in what investigators described as a booby-trapped converted shed behind his parents’ home near Ninth and Merriwether streets. Court records note he was a drug user, admitting to probation officers that he used the synthetic drug “spice.”

He was on probation for burglary charges, accused of stealing guns from homes in his neighborhood.

State Adult Probation Supervisor Susan Potler told police when officers picked him up for probation violations on Nov. 21, the area around Jennings’ house “was ‘booby trapped’ with simple rope traps which appeared to be in place to trip anyone attempting to get close to his home,” according to the complaint.

Sanders said Major Crimes Unit investigators spent more than 1,000 hours studying video tapes provided by businesses around Goodwin Trails park, from as far north as Walmart south to North Plains Mall. He also said investigators checked out more than 120 leads, tips received from the public.

Jennings remains in jail and was refused any bond on the murder charge.