SANTA ANA, California - A Hawthorne man who pleaded guilty in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting a man who was dating the daughter of his co-conspirator was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison.
Antonio Quevedo, 35, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton.
The second defendant in the case - Adelina Cristobal, 56, of Lawndale, who also pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire - is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Staton on January 31.
The murder-for-hire scheme was uncovered during an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Los Angeles Police Department. Investigators initiated the investigation after receiving information that the two defendants were attempting to solicit someone to commit a murder on their behalf. An undercover officer posing as the hired “hit man" met with the defendants, who offered the undercover officer $6,500 to kill the intended victim. Cristobal was to pay Quevedo an additional $500 for arranging the meeting with the “hit man."
Quevedo conspired with Cristobal to hire someone to murder the boyfriend of Cristobal’s daughter, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that noted “Had the government not been able to infiltrate the conspiracy, [Quevedo] may well have found a willing assassin to murder the victim and successfully collected his broker’s fee."
Release No. 14-006
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
