Five men arrested in connection with murder-for-hire plot in San Bernardino​on February 19, 2025 at 12:48 pm

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) — Five men were arrested in connection with a murder-for-hire plot in San Bernardino involving the wife of one of the suspects, resulting in her death.

Yesenia Torres, known by her friends as Jessica, was shot to death on Jan. 10 in the parking lot of Burger Point on west Mill Street.

Surveillance video showed the victim walking out of the restaurant to her car; then being approached by a gunman who chased her around the car before opening fire.

While investigators say they were able to identify the shooter within several hours, they were shocked to find out the motive for the shooting.

“Jessica was a businesswoman in our community,” said San Bernardino police chief Darren Goodman. “She was well known and well respected in our community; she was very civically engaged and supported numerous endeavors throughout our city.”

Detective Dominick Martinez said eyewitnesses identified the license plate of the suspect vehicle, which was found abandoned in a Walmart parking lot in the east end of the city.

“The suspects then got into a second vehicle, which was located at another business,” said Martinez. “There we saw that the suspects had changed their clothing and went inside a business for a short amount of time, and got in the second vehicle and fled the area.

Martinez said they identified two primary suspects within four hours.

The alleged shooter was identified as Gerardo Llamas-Torres, 31, and the alleged getaway driver was identified as Arnoldo Ruelas, 54.

They were arrested on Jan. 16. Authorities recovered evidence linking them to the murder, including a large sum of money.

Detectives said further evidence indicated that Ruelas’ brother worked at a property owned by the victim and her estranged husband, identified as Sergio Reveles, 53.

“These criminals targeted this victim, in a murder-for-hire scheme that was stemming from a contentious divorce from Sergio Reveles,” said Goodman.

Police said the plot was motivated specifically by the division of multi-million-dollar assets during the divorce.

Details about how the murder-for-hire scheme was executed were not immediately available, but police said that it had been planned for more than a year.

The five suspects are charged with murder, as well as special circumstances for allegations of robbery, financial gain and lying-in-wait.

The suspects are all scheduled to be in court on March 14.