Calif. man and woman get life in torture murder of Marine's wife
VISTA, Calif. -- A man and a woman were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the California torture death of an estranged Marine wife, reports CBS affiliate KFMB.
Louis Ray Perez, 49, and Dorothy Maraglino, 40, were convicted in October in the 2012 murder of Brittany Killgore. Jurors found true a special circumstance allegation that the murder happened during a kidnapping. A third defendant, Jessica Lynn Lopez, was also convicted of murder and is expected to be sentenced later.
Killgore had just filed for divorce from her Marine husband, who was deployed to Afghanistan, when she was killed. Prosecutors said Killgore was lured to a meeting with Perez, and her body was found four days later in Riverside County.
According to Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza, a stun baton found in the back of Perez's SUV had the victim's DNA on it. A plastic sheet in the back of Perez's car also had the victim's blood on it.
Lopez's attorney, Sloan Ostbye, told jurors that her client was a victim to a "slave" contract she entered into with Maraglino as part of a bondage and sadomasochistic ritual. Ostbye presented Lopez as a patsy, an abused servant forced to take the blame for a crime she did not commit.
Perez's attorney, Brad Patton, told the jury that Lopez committed the murder. In 2011, he said, Lopez was heartbroken when another woman came between Perez and Maraglino, who were in an open relationship at the time.
Maraglino's attorney, Jane Kinsey, told the jury that her client had abandoned her BD/SM lifestyle while she was pregnant with Perez's child and that her only mistake was to participate in the cover-up.