Los Angeles

Hired Hitman Sentenced to 28 Years to Life Behind Bars in 2 Decade Old Murder

A hitman hired to stage a robbery and kill another man's 17-year-old wife in a La Mirada park -- a crime that went unsolved for nearly two decades -- was sentenced Monday to 28 years to life behind bars.

Leon Martinez, 44, was convicted in 2015 of first-degree murder for shooting Victoria Ghonim on July 23, 1992, while she was sitting in a car with her husband and infant son in La Mirada Creek Park. Jurors also found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and murder for financial gain, sentence enhancements that could have landed Martinez behind bars for life without the possibility of parole.

But he struck a deal with prosecutors for the lesser sentence in exchange for his testimony against the husband who hired him. Morrad Ghonim, 44, was sentenced in December to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his wife's murder. Prosecutors had earlier decided against seeking the death penalty.

The killing went unsolved until 2009, when DNA linked Martinez to the crime. He was arrested in October 2010. Ghonim was charged, arrested and extradited about a month after Martinez was convicted. At the time, he was living in Antigua. Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Howard Cooper testified that according to Ghonim, he was with his wife and infant son at the La Mirada park, standing near a foot bridge, when they heard catcalls coming from a group of people standing nearby.

Ghonim told the investigator that his wife began shouting back at the group, then the family hustled back to their car, where his wife continued to shout at the group, Cooper said. Ghonim said that as he was about to turn on the vehicle's engine, he heard gunshots, and he quickly started the car and sped away, realizing then that his wife had been shot. Cooper said Ghonim claimed he never saw the actual shooter, but sped away trying to find a hospital. He was soon pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer for running a red light, according to Cooper.

The CHP officer said Ghonim was sobbing, and the officer saw the woman in the vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. Martinez gave various accounts to police and in court as to what Ghonim paid him, at one point saying Ghonim offered him $10,000 and actually paid $5,000. In other testimony, Martinez said he was paid only $500.

The lower number was supported by testimony from Ghonim's second wife and the mother of five of his children. The woman Ghonim married after arranging the hit on his young wife testified that during a fight, when she threatened to take the children and move to Texas, Ghonim told her, "If you ever think of getting a divorce, I'll hurt you. It cost me $500 then, it won't cost me much now."

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