Crystal Hulsey pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and 17 other charges in a Phoenix case that started when a woman was found shot to death inside a suitcase.
Hulsey admitted to the murder of Jennifer Beede at her Aug. 11 change of plea hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court. She also pleaded guilty to kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault, theft and charges tied to other crimes in September 2022.
Beede’s body was found inside a suitcase near Cave Creek Road and Carefree Highway on Sept. 17, 2022, by a cyclist. Beede, 39, had been shot in the head.
Hulsey and a man named Jose Luis Sandoval Jaquez were charged with the murder of Beede.
Police said Beede had been with Hulsey and Sandoval Jaquez at a hotel near Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport the night before her body was found.
Hotel surveillance video showed the three entering a room and later showed Sandoval Jaquez dragging a suitcase down a hallway, according to police.
Prosecutors at one point sought the death penalty against both defendants.
Sandoval Jaquez pleaded guilty in December 2025 to first-degree premeditated murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated robbery and another kidnapping charge.
A judge sentenced him in January to natural life in prison for the murder. He also received a 21-year prison sentence for kidnapping, 21 years for armed robbery, 8.75 years for aggravated robbery and 12.5 years for another kidnapping.
Hulsey is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 20.
The case reached beyond Beede’s killing
The investigation also connected Hulsey and Sandoval Jaquez to a series of crimes around the same time.
Hours after Beede’s body was discovered, another man told police Hulsey had arranged to meet him before Sandoval Jaquez appeared with a gun. The man said the pair took his banking information, phone and car after threatening him.
Days later, another man told police he planned a meetup though Tinder with a woman at a Phoenix hotel. Police said Hulsey and Sandoval Jaquez robbed him at gunpoint, took his financial information and forced him to drive to a bank.
When officers later tried to arrest the pair, police said they fled, carjacked another driver and led a chase through the Valley and north toward Happy Jack, where they were arrested.
Beede’s case also came up in a another prosecution of a Phoenix police officer, Michael Feliciano Martinez.
An internal affairs investigation found Martinez had messaged and met with Beede in a hotel room hours before her death.
Martinez later pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in that case and completed a diversion program, leading to the charge being dismissed.
Martinez was separately charged with sexually abusing women while working as a Phoenix officer and later pleaded guilty to reduced sexual abuse charges.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 4 years after body found in suitcase, 2nd defendant pleads guilty
