Accused of murdering a 16-year-old Cortez boy, Shaun Murphy, 18, stood solemnly in front of the court Monday afternoon as Montezuma County Court Judge Chris Leroi advised him on one count of second-degree murder.

Murphy remained silent except to say "no, sir," when Leroi asked him if he had any questions. He smiled only when his 21-month-old daughter, who was sitting in the courtroom, called out "daddy."

A former Cortez resident, Murphy was arrested in Farmington on Wednesday for the slaying of Fred C. Martinez. Murphy was extradited back to Cortez Friday and is being held in the Montezuma County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

Martinez’s partially decomposed body was found June 21 in a rocky canyon south of Cortez. Detectives speculated that he had died at that location nearly a week earlier and appeared to have suffered from some sort of blunt trauma to the head as well as exposure.

At a press conference last week, Sheriff Joey Chavez said that although the autopsy report on Martinez has been completed, he was not willing to release specifics about the cause of death or toxicology results.

Detectives have also refrained from identifying a murder weapon; however, according to a police report, a bloody rock was found close to the body.

The report also referred to a blood trail descending the hill above where the body was found and described Martinez’s body as lying face-up in an easterly direction with his hands cradling his stomach.

Thursday a motion to seal all documents related to the case was granted and subsequently the MCSO has declined all comment regarding Martinez’s death and Murphy’s arrest.

Present at the arraignment hearing Monday were Murphy’s mother, grandmother, daughter and pregnant girlfriend. Several detectives from the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and Cortez Police Department also sat in the courtroom during the 10-minute proceeding.

Murphy’s mother, Angel Murphy Tacoronte, refused comment to the Journal about her son Monday but had previously spoken about the case to the Daily Times in Farmington on Friday.

"It was a fist fight with maybe one too many blows — it wasn’t intentional," Tacoronte told the Times.

According to the Times, Murphy admitted to his mother that he had fought with Martinez the night he died, but didn’t realize the boy was dead until he saw his picture on television.

"He didn’t deny beating him up," Tacoronte told the Times. "The kid wasn’t dead when he left him."

Tacoronte also refuted speculation that Martinez’s reported homosexuality might have been a motive for the crime, saying she is gay and that the murder was "not a hate crime — it’s definitely not."

A preliminary hearing has been set for Aug. 13. Murphy was granted representation by the public defender’s office.