A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection employee was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Friday after he admitted to orchestrating the murder of his wife, prosecutors say.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, 38-year-old Covina resident Eddy Reyes was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton after pleading guilty in April to one count of kidnapping resulting in death.
Reyes, who has been in federal custody since his April 2021 arrest, met Claudia Sanchez Reyes in El Salvadore in 2014. The pair eventually married, had a son and he moved them to the U.S.
Claudia filed temporary restraining orders against Eddy in 2014 and 2016, alleging he committed domestic violence against her.
In 2016, Eddy suspected his wife was having an affair. He contacted his now-dead, former gangmember brother, identified by prosecutors only as “P.O.,” to help him kill his wife.
Eddy called Claudia while she was at work on May 6, 2016, and told her that he was going to take her out to dinner that night and that he would pick her up. He later arrived in a rented Hyundai Santa Fe, lying to her by saying the vehicle was a gift.
He then drove to his mother’s house in Orange. Then, after pulling into the garage and shutting the door, P.O. leapt from the SUV’s cargo area and into the backseat.
He grabbed the seatbelt from the front passenger seat, where Claudia was, and strangled her to death with it after punching her in the face.
Eddy and P.O. drove to the couple’s Santa Ana apartment the next day and posed as Claudio using her cell phone. Using her phone, they called out of her job and fired her divorce lawyer.
P.O. also texted Claudia’s mother and told her that she was leaving Eddy and her son, and wished her a happy Mother’s Day.
Eddy drove to Los Angeles International Airport on May 19 and disposed of a backpack containing a blanket and rags used to clean the SUV in which Claudia was killed.
He filed a missing person report days later, but initially didn’t assist officers in the investigation. When investigators talked to Claudia’s coworkers, they said they overheard the couple arguing on the phone the day of her disappearance, just before Eddy picked her up in the rented vehicle.
Detectives later searched the rented SUV, where they found a drop of blood and a “cadaver dog indicated that a dead body had been in the SUV,” prosecutors said.
“This defendant carried out a despicable, cold-blooded murder of his own wife and now appropriately faces the consequences,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “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.”