First on KBTX: Bryan police use DNA evidence to arrest suspect in double murder cold case

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - A Lee County man sits in the Brazos County Detention Center Thursday night, charged with a murder that happened more than three decades ago in Bryan.

KBTX has confirmed Kevin Matron Thomas, 52, of Dime Box was arrested Thursday by the Bryan Police Department and is now facing a murder charge linked to a double homicide that happened on June 23, 1989.

It was a Friday evening when Martin Razo, 38, and Enrique Godoy, 26, were found beaten and stabbed to death at an apartment at 308 Ehlinger Drive near Green Street but no arrests were ever made.

Autopsies revealed Razo was stabbed with a knife approximately 42 times and Godoy was stabbed approximately 21 times.

Police collected hair samples, blood, and fingerprints at the crime scene, and in March 2018, Bryan police began to review the case due to a latent print matching in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Bryan police coordinated with the DPS Crime Lab to determine if the original samples collected at the crime scene were viable for modern DNA testing.

According to court documents, in May 2020, blood samples collected at the scene of the crime were matched back to Thomas. At the time of the killings, Thomas and the victims all worked for a landscaping company named Semarck Landscaping in College Station, and on the evening of the murders, they were at the home on Ehlinger Drive to have beers after work.

In October 2020, Bryan police met with Thomas at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and told him about the DNA testing that placed him at the scene of the crime, but Thomas denied any involvement in their murders, said police. Detectives also obtained a search warrant to collect DNA and a hair sample from Thomas.

On June 2, 2023, Bryan police were notified by the DPS lab that blood found on the knife used to kill the men contained a mixture of Razo’s DNA and Thomas’s DNA.

Thomas is now charged with the murder of Martin Razo and his bond is set at $300,000.

The motive for the murders is still unclear.

Jail records show Thomas was a resident of College Station in the late ‘80s and has been booked into the Brazos County Detention Center on a wide range of charges 18 times between 1987 and 2003.

In the year prior to the double homicide, Thomas was arrested by the College Station Police Department on charges of credit card abuse, theft, and burglary of a habitation.

In 2004, KBTX profiled the cold case with hopes of new information being shared with investigators to solve the case.

At the time, it was the only unsolved double murder case in Brazos County.

(Editor’s note: Viewer discretion is advised in the video shared above. The original report filed by KBTX in 1989 contains crime scene footage that would not meet current photojournalism editorial standards and could be upsetting for some to watch.)

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