Austin murder suspect bonds out of jail 4 days after being arrested for 2021 deadly stabbing

AUSTIN, Texas - A suspect in a 2021 cold case was arrested this week for the stabbing death of a 23-year-old in South Austin.

Just four days after being booked into jail, he's now out on bond, and there are now questions about why that happened.

Nikolas Martinez called 911 in July 2021, saying he had been stabbed.

He was playing video games with his nephew when he decided to hit pause and get laundry out of his apartment complex's communal facility.

With a stab wound to his neck, he drove himself to a nearby gas station for help, where he later died.

When FOX 7 Austin sat down with Nikolas Martinez's parents two years ago, it was the lack of closure about who killed Nikolas that made losing their son so much more grim.

"We know nothing's going to bring them back," said Martin Martinez, Nikolas’ father. "Nothing's gonna make it better, but just not knowing is just killing us."

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"We think it was something random that just happened, and we don't know why," said Wendy Martinez, Nikolas’ mother. "So if anybody saw anything, just come forward.

That plea was answered this June.

According to an arrest warrant, an anonymous tip came to APD. They witnessed Mithovar Christopher Antoine Jr. stabbing and killing Martinez near his South Austin apartment complex.

Police said the tipster's details added up.

Through an additional search warrant, officers learned Antoine had been Googling news articles related to stabbings in Austin, just days after Martinez's murder.

Law enforcement caught up with him in Temple, arresting and booking him into the Bell County jail on Thursday of last week.

A judge set his bond at $150,000. He bonded out of jail four days later.

"At the end of the day, he's innocent until he's proven guilty, no matter what that probable cause affidavit looks like, so the defense lawyer in me says he's entitled to his day in court, innocent until he's proven guilty," said Gene Anthes, managing partner at the GBA Firm. "The ex-prosecutor in me says look, our job here is to protect the public and make sure this guy shows back up in court."

FOX 7 called Clerk's offices, DA's offices, and sheriff's offices in both Bell and Travis County multiple times this week.

Bell County officials said they couldn't find the suspect's paperwork, and then learned he was released without being extradited.

A source told FOX 7 that agencies should have communicated better and extradited Antoine to Travis County.

"I've had law enforcement pick up the phone to the DA's office and say ‘I just arrested ‘Gene Anthes’ and he's on probation in your county for A, B, and C, you need to get a motion revoke filed as quickly as you can so that another warrant can be held on him,’" said Anthes.

In the two years before Martinez's murder, court documents showed Antoine was arrested for unauthorized use of a vehicle and burglary of a habitation.

He bonded out of jail for the latter charge two months before the murder.

"He's still got a heck of a lot of problems," said Anthes. "I am a little surprised the judge in Bell County or someone in Bell County didn't snap on the fact that he's on probation in Bell County."

Because he was out on probation, Bell County could revoke probation and seek additional warrants for his arrest, bringing him back to jail.

A grand jury in Travis County still needs to indict him for Martinez's murder.