A California man named Eddy Reyes, who once worked for US Customs and Border Protection, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison after entering a guilty plea to planning the violent kidnapping and murder of his wife.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton called the 2016 crime “heinous” and “the result of pure evil,” according to a Department of Justice press release.

Reyes acknowledged that he had planned to abduct and kill Claudia Sanchez Reyes, his wife and the mother of their son.

Several accusations of domestic abuse plagued the couple’s relationship after they relocated to the US from El Salvador in 2014. Reyes began his plan to kill his wife in 2016 after he began to think that she was having an affair with another guy.

Associated coverage:

Reyes led his wife into a lethal trap, but he recruited his half-brother, P.O., who was listed in court documents as a former gang member and gravedigger in El Salvador, to carry out the murder.

The release claims that Reyes told Sanchez Reyes that he wanted to take her out to dinner on May 6, 2016. He claimed that the SUV he leased for the event was a gift for her when he picked her up.

Reyes drove them to his mother’s house, where P.O. was waiting to be picked up in the garage, but the couple never went to dinner. After closing the garage door, P.O. went into the SUV’s cargo area, attacked Sanchez Reyes, and used a seat belt to strangle her.

From then on, Reyes and P.O. used Sanchez Reyes’ phone to text her, call her out of work, fire her divorce attorney, and tell her mother that she had found a new lover and was heading out to live with Reyes and her kid.

Reyes waited for four days after trying to get rid of the evidence from the SUV at Los Angeles International Airport on May 10, 2016, before reporting his wife missing, a delay of many weeks. The release claims that even after filing the report, Reyes remained silent until a few days later in his attorney’s office.

After Reyes was taken into custody on suspicion of kidnapping Sanchez Reyes, a criminal complaint was made against him in April 2021.

In a sentencing memo, Reyes’ lawyer said that his client said P.O. disposed of her remains. The body of Sanchez Reyes has never been found, and P.O. is now dead.

The plea deal included Reyes’ cooperation in finding his wife’s body, and the prosecutors suggested a 30-year term.

According to the letter, the government agreed to offer the defendant a plea deal with a 30-year sentence if he admitted what had happened to Claudia and a 25-year recommendation if he also helped recover her remains, in light of the family’s distress over not knowing what had happened to their daughter and sister.

Despite a visit to a possible desert location in Slab City with a cadaver dog, Reyes was unable to locate the spot where he believes the body of Claudia Sanchez Reyes was buried.

However, the judge was free to impose her own sentence. The agreement included the following provision: At sentencing, should the Court determine that a sentence higher than 30 years is appropriate, defendant can withdraw his guilty plea and proceed to trial.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada stated, This defendant committed a despicable, cold-blooded murder of his own wife and is now facing the appropriate consequences. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the victim s family and thank the investigators and prosecutors who ensured that justice was served in this case.

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