Chilling video shows a wealthy California businesswoman being chased around her car and then gunned down in a parking lot — in what cops call a “murder-for-hire scheme” orchestrated by her estranged husband as part of a “contentious divorce.”
Yesenia “Jessica” Torres, 44, was seen in the newly obtained video being ambushed and mercilessly, fatally shot outside a San Bernardino restaurant on Jan. 10, according to KCAL.
“Definitely a murder-for-hire case,” Detective Dominick Martinez said Tuesday, linking it to her ongoing divorce from Sergio Reveles, 53, and their fight for assets worth millions of dollars.
The footage shows the gunman — identified by cops as Gerardo Llamas-Torres, 31 — jumping out of an SUV and approaching Torres as she gets into her Mercedes G-Wagon.
The unarmed woman is seen trying to fight back, with a good Samaritan also racing out to help — just to run off in terror as the gunman opens fire.
Torres races around her vehicle and tries to flee — with KCAL cutting the footage at the moment she was first hit.
“Unfortunately, she was struck, [which] slowed her down, and the suspect again shot her an additional time with a fatal wound,” Martinez said.
Cops initially thought it was a robbery because the killer had grabbed Torres’ bag.
But they now allege that the gunman was one of four men whom Reveles hired to kill her as part of their “contentious divorce.”
“There is evidence to show that the suspects did stalk our victim for several days and months prior to this murder,” Martinez said, adding that the plot allegedly was hatched more than a year ago.
Llamas-Torres and the accused getaway driver, Arnoldo Ruelas, 54, allegedly fled to an abandoned Walmart parking lot on the other side of the city and jumped into a second car, which authorities say was driven by Ruelas’ younger brother, Reynaldo Ruelas, 37.
The three were arrested on Jan. 16 — but investigators initially had a hard time connecting them to Torres, police said.
Detectives later learned that Reynaldo Ruelas, 37, worked at a pallet business run on a property owned by Torres and Reveles.
The younger Ruelas allegedly served as an intermediary between Reveles and his business partner Juan Perez, 42, who ran the pallet company.
Reveles and Perez were taken into custody on Feb. 16.
Authorities seized over $286,000 in cash and multiple firearms in connection to the scheme, police said.
“She was well-known and well-respected by many throughout the community, she was very civically engaged and supported numerous endeavors throughout the city,” San Bernardino Police Chief Darren Goodman said Tuesday,
All five alleged suspects have been charged with murder, as well as robbery, financial gain and lying in wait.
They have all pleaded not guilty and are due to appear in court on March 14.
