Help Sought in Finding Homicide Suspect

Burbank police on Wednesday asked for the public’s help in finding a Mexican national wanted on a $1-million warrant for allegedly shooting to death his lover’s longtime boyfriend just minutes after midnight on Jan. 1.

Police allege that Antonio Espinoza Ulloa, 29, conspired with his lover and her son to invite Abraham Arellanes of North Hollywood to a fictitious New Year’s Eve party.

The three arranged an ambush on a North Hollywood street, said Burbank Police Det. Craig Ratliff. Once Arellanes got there, Ulloa and Martin Espino, 34, chased him into the driveway of a Burbank home, where Ulloa allegedly shot Arellanes to death, Ratliff said.

Arellanes, an auto mechanic, had previously been convicted of misdemeanor spousal abuse against his live-in girlfriend of 18 years, Socorro Renteria, 57, police said.

But the motive for the shooting, police allege, had more to do with love and greed than revenge.

Arellanes owned two houses and rented out the rooms for extra income, Ratliff said, adding that Renteria had been added to the title on the homes a month earlier. What’s more, he was in the way of the relationship between Renteria and Ulloa, the detective added.

Renteria and Espino are in custody awaiting trial on murder charges in the alleged conspiracy, Ratliff said.

“We have received unconfirmed information that Ulloa has fled to Mexico,” Ratliff said. “But he could be around the corner and we wouldn’t know it. That’s why we’re enlisting the public’s help.”

Ulloa is described as 5 feet 9 and weighing 150 pounds, with dark brown hair and eyes. When he was last seen, he had a thin mustache, police said.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call Burbank police at (818) 238-3000.