Suspected US hitman Jose Manuel Martinez admits up to 40 slayings

A suspected contract killer charged in California with killing nine people confessed that he carried out up to 40 slayings in a career spanning decades, a prosecutor said.

Errek Jett, the district attorney in Lawrence county, Alabama, said on Wednesday that Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, told investigators he carried out the crimes working as an enforcer for a drug cartel. Jett said they believed Martinez because of the details he gave investigators which matched unsolved killings.

Martinez was arrested last year shortly after crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona and sent to Alabama, where he awaits trial on one murder charge. Once word got out, a steady stream of investigators from across the country came to question Martinez, Jett said.

Defence attorney Thomas Turner, who represents Martinez in that lone case, said his client was eager to start a June trial in Alabama, so he can return to California. Turner said Martinez maintained his innocence to the charge there and did not seem to be a hardened killer.

"I've found him to be polite and a likable individual," Turner said. "He has a good personality as far as talking with him."

Prosecutors in California say otherwise.