'A product of pure evil'—those are the words U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton used to describe the crimes Eddy Reyes, 38, committed against his wife before sentencing him to 480 months in federal prison. Reyes, a former civilian employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in California, kidnapped his wife and strangled her to death.
"[Reyes] carried out a despicable, cold-blooded murder of his own wife and now appropriately faces the consequences," said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. According to court documents, Reyes, who resided in Covina—a city 22 miles east of Los Angeles—suspected his wife has having an affair and decided to kill her.
Claudia Sanchez Reyes, 21, met the defendant in El Salvador in 2014 when she was still a teenager. She had a son with Reyes and eventually accompanied him to the United States, where their relationship quickly turned violent, as court documents filed by Sanchez Reyes show. The Salvadoran woman obtained two temporary restraining orders against Reyes in 2014 and 2016.
In 2016, Reyes plotted to kill his wife with his now deceased half-brother, who was a former gang member and gravedigger in El Salvador. On May 6, 2016, the former CBP employee called Sanchez Reyes and invited her to dinner. Sanchez Reyes accepted the invitation and Reyes picked her up from her workplace that night in a rented SUV. He previously told the victim that the vehicle was a gift, court documents indicate.
Instead of driving to a restaurant, Reyes drove to his mother's house in Orange, a city approximately 30 minutes away from Covina. When he pulled into the garage, Reyes's half-brother, who was in the SUV's cargo area, immediately attacked Sanchez-Reyes from behind and strangled her using a seat belt. Both men then moved the victim's dead body to the SUV's cargo area.
Reyes filed a missing person report four days after his wife's death. Prior to that, he and his accomplice used his wife's phone to text her mother and tell her she was leaving the defendant and their son for another man. Reyes also texted a paralegal working for his wife's divorce lawyer, dismissing their services. On May 19, 2016, authorities spotted Reyes at Los Angeles International Airport throwing a backpack into a trashcan. Detectives later revealed the backback contained a blanket and rags used to wipe down the SUV after Sanchez Reyes was killed.
When authorities questioned Reyes about his wife's disappearance he initially refused to answer questions. His wife's co-workers later reported to have heard the victim and the defendant fighting before she boarded the SUV the night she was reportedly killed. Investigators later found one drop of blood in the SUV and a cadaver dog indicated that a dead body had been inside the vehicle.
Reyes was employeed by CBP when he committed the crime. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not tolerate misconduct, on or off duty," said Todd Siegel, CBP Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), Special Agent in Charge, Los Angeles. "CBP OPR Los Angeles Field Office's efforts in this case is a testament to CBP's commitment to preserving the honor of its overwhelmingly professional workforce, and its core values of vigilance, integrity, and service to our country."
The defendant was arrested in April 2021 and has been in federal custody since then.
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