Where are Duncan Martinez and Nathaniel Blalock now? 'NBC Dateline' to rerun UCLA student's murder case
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Convicted for the murder of their roommate Ronald Baker in 1990, Duncan Martinez and Nathaniel Blalock were sent to serve a life sentence in prison.
The murder left the people of Los Angeles horrified as there were rumors of Satanic rituals being involved in the killing of the young UCLA student.
One of the charged murderers has been able to get out of prison on parole while the other continues to serve his sentence.
NBC's true crime show 'Dateline' will be airing the rerun of the episode based on the investigation of Ronald's murder.
The episode called 'Night of the Summer Solstice' can be watched on the channel at 9 pm ET on Friday, August 25, 2023.
The 'killer roommates' Duncan Martinez and Nathaniel Blalock
Duncan came in contact with Ronald as they were both UCLA students in the same university campus. The two eventually started sharing an apartment in Van Nuys.
Not long after, Nathaniel also joined them as their third flatmate.
While the three were quite close with each other, one mistake led to another and Ronald was killed at the hands of his two roommates.
According to the LA Police Department, since the two killer roommates eventually used Ronald's murder as a way to get ransom money from his parents, the murder was pre-meditated.
The police believed the two had planned the murder in detail, after getting 'inspired' by a show.
A report on the murder shared that the roommates were obsessed with a show called 'Dragnet' that eventually got them thinking about killing someone for money.
The police department never got a solid lead on the same but it was assumed that they brought Ronald to the deserted Chatsworth Park's Manson Tunnel and ended up killing him.
They later called the Bakers to demand a ransom of $100,000 with the threat that they would hurt their son.
Where are Duncan Martinez and Nathaniel Blalock now?
Duncan had disappeared from the fear of being convicted for two years before he confessed to his crimes and got Nathaniel involved as well.
"Their theory was that they were going to kill the victim first, so they couldn’t be identified, or so there wouldn’t be any difficulties with having him around when they made ransom demands," said Deputy District Attorney Serling Norris about the murderers' modus operandi.
The two were convicted of Ronald Baker's first-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison in March of 1996.
Both Duncan and Nathaniel received no possibility of parole. However, in 2020, Duncan's sentence was commuted by California governor and he was released in December 2020.
Before his release, the now-52-year-old Duncan was imprisoned at the California State Prison in Los Angeles County.
Through a prison program called Project Rebound, Martinez was able to enrol for his Masters in Fine Arts at Cal State LA once he was released, as per Visalia Times Delta.
Nathaniel, now 55, continues to serve his sentence at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California.