LOS ANGELES—A Covina man who was a civilian employee for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Long Beach was sentenced Friday to 40 years behind bars for kidnapping his wife in an attack that resulted in her death.
Eddy Reyes, 39, who lived with his wife in Santa Ana before she vanished eight years ago, pleaded guilty in April in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of kidnapping resulting in death.
Federal prosecutors had stated they would lower their sentencing recommendation to 25 years if Reyes provided information leading to the recovery of the remains of Claudia Sanchez Reyes—so they could be returned to her parents in El Salvador, according to Reyes’ plea agreement.
However, the government’s sentencing brief showed no indication Reyes provided such information.
Reyes admitted that he kidnapped his then-21-year-old wife on May 6, 2016, after suspecting she was having an affair with another man.
Claudia Reyes was last seen leaving work that night at El Pollo Loco in Garden Grove. After Reyes filed a missing person report four days later, the Santa Ana Police Department conducted an investigation that revealed co-workers heard the woman fighting with her husband the night she disappeared, before he picked her up in a rented SUV, according to an affidavit.
The document notes that a cadaver dog indicated that a body had been in the Hyundai SUV, and detectives found a drop of Claudia Reyes’ blood in the vehicle.
The woman’s body was never recovered.
Court papers document a history of domestic abuse by Reyes against his wife, including several threats to kill her, as well as temporary restraining orders Claudia Reyes obtained against her husband in 2014 and 2016.
According to his plea agreement, Reyes met with his now-deceased half-brother, identified by the initials P.O., at a McDonald’s restaurant in Los Angeles one month before the kidnapping to plan the killing. Reyes had been estranged from his half-brother but contacted him because P.O. had previously been a gang member and “gravedigger” in El Salvador, Reyes stated.
At P.O.’s suggestion, Reyes rented the SUV to use to kidnap and kill the woman. The defendant told his wife the Hyundai Santa Fe was a gift for her.
On May 6, 2016, Reyes called Claudia and told her he wanted to take her out to dinner and he would pick her up after work. When Reyes arrived at her workplace, P.O. was hiding under a blanket in the back of the SUV, Reyes said in his plea agreement.
After she was picked up, the defendant drove to his mother’s house in Orange and pulled into the garage. Once the garage door closed, P.O. grabbed the woman and strangled her, Reyes stated in the plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Reyes said he then helped his half-brother push the body into the back seat and eventually into the cargo area of the Hyundai.
The next day, Reyes used Claudia’s cell phone to pose as her and text her workplace saying she would not be in that day. P.O., posing as the woman, then sent a text message to a paralegal who worked for Claudia’s divorce lawyer stating that the attorney was no longer needed, Reyes said.
P.O., again posing as the woman, sent a text to Claudia’s mother in El Salvador saying she was moving to New York with a new man and was leaving her then-4-year-old son with her husband, according to the plea agreement.
On May 19, 2016, Reyes drove to a parking lot at Los Angeles International Airport and threw in a trash can a backpack containing a blanket and rags P.O. used to wipe down the seat belts and interior of the Hyundai SUV, Reyes stated.
