Funeral For Loganville Stabbing Father, Children Is Thursday

LOGANVILLE, GA — The father and children killed in a brutal stabbing in Loganville last week will be remembered at a single funeral service on Thursday.

A funeral mass for Martin Romero, 33, and the four young children will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Lawrenceville. Burial will take place at a later date in Michoacan, a state in Mexico.

Visitation will be held Wednesday, from 5-9 p.m. at Byrd and Flanigan Crematory & Funeral Service in Lawrenceville.

Meanwhile, Romero's wife and the children's mother — 33-year-old Isabel Martinez — continues to be held at Gwinnett County Jail without bond, charged with murder in the early morning stabbings.

Loganville Family Stabbing: Five Things To Know

Authorities received a 911 call at 4:47 a.m. last Thursday from a woman at a home on Emory Lane in Loganville. Police say that woman was Martinez, who is now in jail facing multiple murder charges and being held for federal immigration officials.

The children killed in the stabbings are:

• Isabela Martinez, 10
• Dacota Romero, 7
• Dillan Romero, 4
• Axel Romero, 2

A fifth child, 9-year-old Diana Romero, also was seriously injured in the attack. She was flown to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where she continues to recover.

A fundraising effort started by a family member on website GoFundMe had raised about $33,000 of its $50,000 goal Tuesday morning. The funds will go to funeral costs for the family and Diana's medical care.

Martinez made a bizarre first appearance in court on Friday morning, during which she displayed erratic, behavior.
Video from WSB-TV shows her in a jailhouse jumpsuit, smiling broadly and repeatedly giving a two-handed "thumbs up" sign to news cameras.

She made a hand gesture that looked like prayer several times and at one point dropped to her knees as if praying before being told by a sheriff's deputy to return to her seat.

With the help of a translator, she told a judge she wants to represent herself in court, saying her "attorney is the people we are fighting for." It was unclear from her rambling comments to the judge whether she understood the gravity of the charges against her.

Judge Michael Thorpe appointed Martinez an attorney anyway.

Her lawyer, Robert Greenwald, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution he plans to have her undergo a mental health evaluation.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for July 20.

Martin Romero's obituary, from Byrd and Flanigan Crematory & Funeral Services

Family photos via GoFundMe. Martinez photo courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department