A former border patrol worker in California described by a judge as "pure evil" was sentenced to 40 years in prison for plotting the fatal trap that led to his wife's grisly murder.
U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton condemned the killing orchestrated by 38-year-old Eddy Reyes as "heinous" and "a product of pure evil," according to federal prosecutors.
Reyes pleaded guilty to kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the 2016 killing of his estranged wife, Claudia Sanchez Reyes, 21. On Friday, Reyes learned he would spend the next four decades incarcerated.
"Mr. Reyes abandoned his commitment to law enforcement and tried to get away with a calculated brutal murder," Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement. "Today's sentence exemplifies a true commitment to law enforcement and finding justice. May it bring solace to Claudia's family in El Salvador."
Reyes was a U.S. Customs and Border Protection employee when he planned his wife's murder.
The couple first met in El Salvador in 2014. They married and had a child, and Reyes brought them to live with him in Covina, California. But their relationship turned sour – marred by domestic abuse allegedly perpetrated by Reyes, prompting Claudia to file several restraining orders against him, said prosecutors.
By 2016, Reyes suspected Claudia was having an affair and decided to have her killed.
He reached out to his now-deceased half-brother – identified in court documents only as "P.O." – who at the time was a grave digger in El Salvador and an ex-gang member.
On May 6, 2016, Reyes lured Claudia out with the promise of dinner at a restaurant and picked her up from work in an SUV rental. He then drove them to his mother's house in Orange, California. He pulled the vehicle into the garage, and once the door shut, P.O. popped out of the backseat, punched Claudia in the face, and strangled her to death with a seatbelt, said prosecutors.
Her body was never found.
Reyes reported Claudia missing three weeks later. But in between that time, posing as his wife, he sent text messages from her phone to her family in El Salvador stating she met another man, intended to leave her husband and son, and was disconnecting her phone. P.O. used the same phone to text the victim's lawyer and call off divorce proceedings.
Despite filing the missing persons report, Reyes refused to cooperate with police until he retained an attorney.
Over the course of the investigation, detectives learned the couple had a tumultuous relationship. A drop of Claudia's blood was found in the SUV rental and a cadaver dog indicated a dead body had been in the vehicle.
"This defendant carried out a despicable, cold-blooded murder of his own wife and now appropriately faces the consequences," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said. "Our deepest condolences to the victim's family and our appreciation to the investigators and prosecutors who ensured that justice was done in this case."
