LOS ANGELES : Man Admits Plot to Kill Motorist
A Los Angeles man who was deported from Mexico to face charges of masterminding the freeway off-ramp slaying of a downtown property owner has pleaded guilty and will receive a prison sentence of 20 years under a plea bargain.
The plea bargain for Rene Cruz Reynoso was announced as jury selection was getting under way for his murder trial in Santa Monica Superior Court Wednesday. Reynoso, 30, was charged in the 1991 killing of Ronald B. Ordin, an owner of Los Angeles’ Central Wholesale Market, where Reynoso once operated a store.
Ordin was shot by a passenger on a motorcycle as he left the National Boulevard off-ramp of the Santa Monica Freeway. The incident was staged to look like the result of a drivers’ argument, but the motorcycle driver told police that Reynoso hired him to kill Ordin. The gunman is still at large.
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