Woman, Lover and Kids Accused of Death Plot

A man who had been arrested previously for spousal abuse was invited to a fictitious New Year’s Eve party by his 57-year-old live-in girlfriend, where her 28-year-old lover ambushed him, chased him for 20 minutes and shot him to death, police said Friday.

Abraham Arellanes of North Hollywood became the first homicide victim of the new year in the San Fernando Valley area.

“He was gunned down like an animal,” said Burbank Police Lt. Don Brown.

Arellanes tried to escape by running, but the killer pursued him in a van over a wide area of Burbank and North Hollywood, firing at him until Arellanes was cornered and killed in the driveway of a Burbank home, Brown said.

Police reconstructed the route of the chase by the locations of 21 spent 9-millimeter cartridge cases.

Arellanes, 44, an auto mechanic who had been arrested at least once for spouse-beating, was targeted by his girlfriend of 18 years, Socorro Renteria, 57, her son Martin Espino, 34, and her new lover, Antonio Espinoza Ulloa, 28, police said.

Police were still seeking Ulloa on Friday but the others were in custody.

Espino was held on suspicion of first-degree murder, police said, and Renteria and her daughter, Reyna Zarate, 35, were held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Details of the investigation were not released.

All three live in North Hollywood and have prior criminal records, police said. Espino, who has convictions for burglary and auto theft, was on parole, police said.

Ulloa and Espino allegedly plotted with Espino’s mother and sister to direct Arellanes to a fictitious New Year’s Eve party in a North Hollywood neighborhood, where they could kill him, police said.

“They decided Abraham was in the way of Antonio’s relationship with Martin’s mother, and that Abraham was just too abusive to her anyway,” Brown said.