Former Customs employee sentenced to 40 years for plotting to kill his wife
LOS ANGELES - A former Customs and Border Protection employee was sentenced to 40 years in prison for kidnapping his wife and having his half-brother murder her.
Eddy Reyes of Covina was sentenced Friday, for a crime the judge called "heinous" and "a product of pure evil." Reyes pleaded guilty in April to the 2016 kidnapping.
Reyes met his wife in El Salvador in 2014, before bringing her and their son to the U.S. According to the Department of justice, Reyes had a long history of domestic abuse, with his wife getting temporary restraining orders against him in 2014 and 2016.
In May 2016, Reyes suspected his wife of having an affair, so he devised a plan to kill her, the DOJ said. That's when Reyes contacted his estranged half-brother back in El Salvador and enlisted him to help carry out the murder. Reyes' half brother was a former gang member in El Salvador, and has since died.
Claudia Reyes typically took an Uber home from work. But, on May 6, 2016, Eddy Reyes called her at work, telling her he was going to pick her up from work and take her to dinner. Reyes picked his wife up in a rented car, telling her it was a gift. But, instead of taking her to dinner, Reyes drove to his mom's house in Orange. After he pulled into the garage, Reyes' half-brother popped out from the back seat, grabbed Claudia Reyes, punched her and strangled her with her own seatbelt.
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The next day, Reyes and his half-brother used Claudia Reyes' phone to text colleagues and family members posing as the woman, including texting her mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day.
Days later, Reyes drove to LAX and threw a bag in the trash that had in it rags that were used to clean up after the murder. Reyes then filed a missing person's report.
"This defendant carried out a despicable, cold-blooded murder of his own wife and now appropriately faces the consequences," United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release. "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."
Reyes was arrested in 2021, after investigators discovered evidence showing that he and his wife were arguing shortly before the murders, and after investigators found a drop of Claudia Reyes' blood in the rented SUV. A cadaver dog also indicated that a dead body had been in the car.