Left: Claudia Sanchez Reyes (KTLA). Right: Reyes and Eddy Reyes (KCAL/Santa Ana Police Department)
Eddy Reyes, a California man who used to work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection who pleaded guilty to orchestrating the grisly kidnapping and murder of his wife, has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton described the crime — which occurred in 2016 — as “heinous” and “a product of pure evil,” according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Reyes admitted to a plot to kidnap and murder his wife Claudia Sanchez Reyes, who was also the mother of their son. The couple came to the United States from El Salvador in 2014, and their relationship was marred by several allegations of domestic violence. By 2016, Reyes suspected his wife was having an affair with another man, which prompted him to begin his plan to kill her.
He recruited his half brother, identified in court documents as “P.O.” and a “one-time gang member and gravedigger in El Salvador,” to carry out the killing, but Reyes was the one who lured his wife into a fatal trap.
According to the release, Reyes told Sanchez Reyes on May 6, 2016, that he wanted to take her out to dinner. He picked her up in an SUV he rented for the “occasion,” telling her falsely that it was a gift for her. But the couple never went to dinner — instead, Reyes drove them to his mother’s house, where P.O. was waiting to be picked up in the garage. Once the garage door was closed, P.O. hopped into the SUV’s cargo area, assaulted Sanchez Reyes, and then strangled her with a seat belt.
From that point, Reyes and P.O. used Sanchez Reyes’ phone to send texts on her behalf to call out from work, fire her divorce lawyer, and lie to her mother about finding a new boyfriend and “leaving Reyes and her son.” Reyes did not report his wife missing for weeks, waiting until four days after he attempted to get rid of evidence from the SUV at Los Angeles International Airport on May 10, 2016. According to the release, Reyes “refused to answer questions, despite having filed the report, until several days later at his lawyer’s office.”
A criminal complaint against Reyes was filed in April 2021, when he was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Sanchez Reyes.
Reyes’ attorney wrote in a sentencing memo that his client stated it was P.O. who “disposed of her remains.” P.O. is now deceased, and Sanchez Reyes’ body has never been found. Part of the plea deal, and the government’s recommendation of a 30-year sentence, was Reyes’ cooperation in locating his wife’s body. The memo stated that “based on the family’s anguish at not knowing what happened to their daughter and sister, the government decided to extend a plea offer to defendant with a recommendation from the government for a 30-year sentence if he admitted what happened to Claudia, and a 25-year recommendation if he also assisted in recovering her remains.” 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.”
The judge, however, was free to impose a sentence of her own choosing. The plea agreement stated, “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 said, “This defendant carried out a despicable, cold-blooded murder of his own wife and now appropriately faces the consequences. 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.”
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