- Port Orange Jiu-Jitsu Coach Arrested: Estevan Gabriel Martinez-Garcia, 33, was arrested Sept. 9 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on charges involving a juvenile student.
- Police allege he groomed and sexually abused a 16-year-old student at Bully Me Now Jiu-Jitsu in Port Orange, Florida, between spring 2025 and spring 2026.
- The academy’s owner says he heard concerns about the coach for roughly 10 months before the case reached investigators.
- Martinez-Garcia faces four charges and is being held without bond pending extradition to Volusia County.
A Port Orange Jiu-Jitsu coach arrested in New Mexico this week faces four charges tied to the alleged grooming and sexual abuse of a 16-year-old student.
Estevan Gabriel Martinez-Garcia, 33, was taken into custody Sept. 9 in Albuquerque, more than seven weeks after the Port Orange Police Department opened an investigation into the former Bully Me Now Jiu-Jitsu coach.
Detectives allege the abuse unfolded between spring 2025 and spring 2026, a span of roughly a year, and involved both sexual contact and sexually explicit images sent to the teenager. The case pulled investigators across state lines and ended with a confession, according to police.
Port Orange Jiu-Jitsu Coach Arrested: How The Case Came Together
The Port Orange Police Department said its Criminal Investigations Division was notified July 20 about allegations involving Martinez-Garcia, who coached at Bully Me Now Jiu-Jitsu. The department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit, known as ICAC, led the investigation.
After weeks of interviews and evidence collection, detectives obtained an arrest warrant. By then, Martinez-Garcia no longer lived in Florida. Investigators traced him to the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area.
With help from the Albuquerque Police Department’s Fugitive Apprehension Support Team, he was located and taken into custody. A Port Orange ICAC detective traveled to Albuquerque and was present for the arrest, where police said Martinez-Garcia gave a full confession.
“Manipulation Is Real. Grooming Is Real.”
The academy’s owner, Victor Ezeir, has spoken openly about the warning signs he believes he should have acted on sooner.
He told local reporters that multiple people raised concerns about Martinez-Garcia’s behavior over roughly 10 months, saying they had seen the coach and the teenager interacting in ways that made them uncomfortable.
Ezeir fired Martinez-Garcia, but he did not immediately go to police. He said the student initially denied that anything inappropriate was happening.
“I fired him. I threw him out of every part of my life, and I literally threw a suitcase at him. I lived by just having trust, and I got burned.”
– Victor Ezeir –
The situation changed, Ezeir said, after he received messages from a woman who had known Martinez-Garcia in the past. He showed those messages to the teenager and asked again whether anything was going on.
“That’s when it came out.”
– Victor Ezeir –
Ezeir has since said the teenager’s parents wanted one message shared publicly.
“The parents would like me to let everybody know this: Manipulation is real. Grooming is real.”
– Victor Ezeir –
The Charges Martinez-Garcia Faces
Martinez-Garcia faces four charges in Volusia County:
- Sexual battery by an offender age 24 or older on a victim who is 16 or 17
- Unlawful use of a two-way communications device
- Harmful explicit communication to a minor
- Lewd or lascivious behavior involving written solicitation of a minor
He is being held without bond in a New Mexico jail, and there is no clear timeline for his extradition to Florida. The Port Orange Police Department framed the outcome in stark terms.
“This successful investigation is another example of the commitment and expertise of the dedicated detectives of the Port Orange Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children. We will leave no stone unturned to protect our children against predators.”
– Port Orange Police Department –
What This Means For Youth Jiu-Jitsu
Ezeir said the case has forced him to rethink how much access outside coaches get around the children who train at his academy, and he has vowed to change his hiring practices.
He acknowledged the gym had no formal policies in place at the time, and said he will no longer give an outside adult coach the same access inside his building.
The arrest has also renewed a difficult conversation inside the broader grappling community about safeguarding in academies where adult instructors hold a position of trust over minors.
The allegations have not been adjudicated, and Martinez-Garcia is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. What is already clear is how far one investigation travelled: a July tip at a Florida academy became the cross-country pursuit of a Port Orange Jiu-Jitsu coach arrested in New Mexico, far from the gym where the allegations began.
