Claudia Sanchez Reyes (KTLA) is on the left. Right: KCAL/Santa Ana Police Department’s Reyes and Eddy Reyes
Californian Eddy Reyes, a former employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison after entering a guilty plea to planning the gruesome kidnapping and murder of his wife.
According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton called the 2016 crime “heinous” and “the result of pure evil.”
In addition to being the father of their son, Reyes acknowledged planning to abduct and kill his wife, Claudia Sanchez Reyes. The couple’s relationship was tainted by multiple claims of domestic violence after they arrived in the US from El Salvador in 2014. Reyes started his plan to kill his wife in 2016 after he had suspicions that she was having an affair with another guy.
To carry out the murder, he enlisted his half-brother, P.O., who was a former gang member and gravedigger in El Salvador, according to court records. However, it was Reyes who tricked his wife into falling into a deadly trap.
The statement claims that on May 6, 2016, Reyes informed Sanchez Reyes that he would like to have supper with her. He pretended it was a gift for her when he picked her up in an SUV he had leased for the event. However, Reyes drove them to his mother’s house, where P.O. was waiting to be picked up in the garage, and the couple never went to dinner. After closing the garage door, P.O. jumped into the cargo compartment of the SUV, attacked Sanchez Reyes, and then used a seat belt to strangle her.
Subsequently, Reyes and P.O. used Sanchez Reyes’ phone to text her to quit her job, fire her divorce attorney, and tell her mother that she had found a new lover and was leaving Reyes and her kid. On May 10, 2016, Reyes tried to remove evidence from the SUV at Los Angeles International Airport, but he didn’t report his wife missing for 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 detained in April 2021 on suspicion of kidnapping Sanchez Reyes, a criminal complaint was filed against him.
In a sentencing memo, Reyes’ lawyer noted that his client claimed P.O. was responsible for disposing of her remains. The body of Sanchez Reyes has never been located, and P.O. is now dead. Reyes’ cooperation in finding his wife’s body was a condition of the plea agreement and the government’s suggestion of a 30-year sentence. According to the memo, the government made the decision 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, citing the family’s distress at not knowing what had happened to their daughter and sister. Even after using a cadaver dog to visit a potential desert site in Slab City, Reyes was unable to find the location where he thinks Claudia Sanchez Reyes’s body was interred.
However, the judge may choose the sentence she wanted to inflict. The Plea has agreed, The offender has the option to drop his guilty plea and go to trial if the court decides that a sentence longer than 30 years is justified.
“This defendant committed a heinous, heartless murder of his own wife and now rightfully faces the consequences,” stated U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. We extend our sincere sympathies to the victim’s family and thank the detectives and prosecutors who worked to see that justice was served in this instance.
Do you have a tip we ought to know?[email protected]
Note: Thank you for visiting our website! We strive to keep you informed with the latest updates based on expected timelines, although please note that we are not affiliated with any official bodies. Our team is committed to ensuring accuracy and transparency in our reporting, verifying all information before publication. We aim to bring you reliable news, and if you have any questions or concerns about our content, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!