A wealthy California businesswoman was gunned down in front of a restaurant in broad daylight in what initially seemed like an armed robbery.
Now, authorities claim the brazen Jan. 10 shooting of Yesenia Torres, 44, of San Bernardino, was a murder-for-hire plot allegedly masterminded by her estranged husband, Sergio Reveles, 53, of Yucaipa, who was fighting with her over millions of dollars of shared assets, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said in a release... Continue reading here ▶
The investigation allegedly revealed the murder plot had been planned for more than a year, according to the DA’s Office.
“These criminals targeted this victim in a murder-for-hire scheme that was stemming from a contentious divorce,” San Bernardino police chief Darren Goodman said at a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
The couple, who own commercial real estate in Southern California including a pallet company and a medical office, had been in the process of divorcing for two years, Detective Dominic Martinez of the San Bernardino Police Department said, The San Bernardino Sun reports.
During the press conference, authorities announced that on Jan. 16, they had arrested Gerardo Llamas Torres, 31, of Bakersfield, the alleged gunman, who is not related to the victim, as well as Arnoldo Rueles, 54, of Los Angeles, who allegedly drove the getaway car.
When they were arrested, evidence linking them to the murder was recovered, including $286,000 in cash, the DA’s Office alleges.
“Further investigation uncovered a deeper conspiracy,” the DA’s Office said in the release.
On Feb. 13, authorities arrested Reynaldo Ruelas, 37, of Los Angeles, who is Arnoldo’s younger brother and allegedly served as an intermediary between the hired shooters and Reveles; Juan Perez, 42, of Riverside, who is Reveles’ business partner; and Reveles.
They are all charged with first-degree murder, robbery and other counts.
In chilling surveillance video shown during the press conference, Torres is seen leaving the Burger Point restaurant on Mill St. in San Bernardino at 11:45 a.m. with a cup of coffee in her hand.
She walks to her Mercedes-Benz SUV and gets into the vehicle when a man, allegedly identified later as Llamas Torres, gets out of a Ford Escape and approaches her, standing by the open driver’s side door.
He points a gun with a silencer at her, police said, and takes her purse.
Throwing her coffee aside, she is seen jumping out of the car and trying to wrest the gun from the man, who then chases her in the parking lot and then around her car.
Another man from inside the restaurant races out to help her, until shots are fired and he runs to the side of the building.
The gunman is seen firing at Torres multiple times when the surveillance tape ends.
“The victim does make an attempt to run inside the business for safety, but, unfortunately, she was struck, it slowed her down, and the suspect again shot her an additional time with a fatal wound,” Martinez said, the Sun reports.
She was found dead in the entrance to the restaurant.
All five men pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Prosecutions have also filed special circumstances against the defendants on allegations of lying in wait, murder for financial gain and murder committed during the commission of a robbery that make them eligible for the death penalty.
They are being held without bail. They are scheduled to appear in court on March 14 for a bail hearing.
