'Pure evil': Former federal employee sentenced for orchestrating brutal killing of his wife

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection employee will spend decades in prison after he admitted to orchestrating the murder of his wife.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Eddy Reyes, 38, of Covina, was sentenced Friday to 40 years in federal prison. He pleaded 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 twice filed temporary restraining orders against Eddy, alleging he abused her.

In 2016, suspecting his wife was having an affair, Eddy contacted his now-dead, former gang member 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 punched her in the face, grabbed the seatbelt from the front passenger seat and strangled Claudia to death, prosecutors said. She was 21 years old when she died.

Eddy and P.O. then drove to the couple's Santa Ana apartment the next day and posed as Claudia, using her cell phone to call out of her job and fire 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 then drove to LAX days later 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, officials said.

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. A cadaver dog later 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.

At his sentencing Friday, Judge Josephine L. Staton called the crime “heinous” and “a product of pure evil.”