Fatal daylight robbery was part of murder-for-hire scheme, police say

A woman’s estranged husband and four other men are facing special-circumstances murder charges after police say they stalked her for weeks, planned her killing and then gunned her down outside a San Bernardino restaurant last month, authorities said Tuesday.

Yesenia Torres, 44, and her husband Sergio Reveles, 53, were in the midst of a contentious divorce that had dragged on for two years when police allege Reveles paid a group of men a large sum of cash — approaching hundreds of thousands of dollars — to kill her.

The couple owned several businesses across Southern California with assets worth millions of dollars, San Bernardino Police Det. Dominick Martinez said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

But it took detectives roughly a month to fully untangle the case, which at first might have appeared as a simple robbery gone wrong.

Torres was leaving Burger Point on West Mill Street just after noon on Jan. 10 when a Ford Escape SUV pulled up behind her silver Mercedes SUV. A man armed with a gun, identified by police as 31-year-old Gerardo Llamas, approached her as she got into the driver’s seat of her car, surveillance video shows.

“This brazen attack happened in broad daylight, in full view of patrons and employees who were working at the restaurant,” said San Bernardino Police Chief Darren Goodman.

After a brief conversation with Torres, Llamas grabbed her purse and attempted to shoot her. Torres attempted to fight back and grab the gun, and a struggle ensued, but Llamas maintained control of the firearm, according to police and video footage.

At one point in the scuffle, a patron ran out of the restaurant to help Torres, but quickly retreated amid gunfire. Llamas chased Torres around the Mercedes while firing the gun at her. Eventually, she tried to run back inside the restaurant and was fatally wounded. A total of nine rounds were fired in the attack, Martinez said.

Police found her unresponsive in the doorway of the restaurant, where she was later pronounced dead.

A witness gave police early clues in the case: the license plate number and descriptions of the vehicle and the suspects who had fled, Martinez said. Investigators also obtained surveillance video showing the attack, which Martinez said had “assisted greatly in the investigation.”

Police later found the Ford Escape abandoned in a Walmart parking lot in San Bernardino. Llamas and the getaway driver, identified by police as Arnoldo Ruelas, 54, got into another vehicle and then made their way into a business, which they fled after changing their clothing, Martinez said.

“There was always one thing we asked ourselves: What’s the link between the victim and our two suspects?” Martinez said.

Martinez said police found evidence inside the Ford SUV that led them to additional suspects in the case. Authorities did not detail the evidence that was found.

Detectives determined that Arnoldo Ruelas’ brother Reynaldo Ruelas, 37, along with Juan Perez, 42, who ran one of the couple’s businesses, Sergio’s Pallets in San Bernardino, were linked to the killing. Reynaldo Ruelas worked for Perez at the pallet business, Martinez said.

While serving search warrants on several businesses and residences linked to the suspects, police found more than $200,000 in cash and “numerous” firearms, Martinez said.

Llamas, Arnoldo and Reynaldo Ruelas, Juan Perez and the victim’s estranged husband, Reveles, are facing murder charges with special circumstances for allegations of lying in wait, murder for financial gain and robbery during murder, according to prosecutors and court records.

The men are in custody and could not immediately be reached for comment; attorneys had yet to be assigned to the suspects as of Tuesday afternoon.

If convicted, they each face maximum sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The police investigation was an “unbelievably tireless effort,” said San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Jason Anderson.

“You could sense all along that there had to be more to the story,” he said. “The tragedy and travesty of having an individual that was essentially assassinated at one of her favorite eateries in San Bernardino — it’s a very, very sad case.”