Fil-Am, buddy face 50 years to life for Pinay ‘Black Widow’ slay

A Filipino American US Navy enlisted man and his buddy were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder by a Los Angeles jury on Thursday for the killing of a Filipina hairdresser dubbed by the US media as the “Lomita Black Widow." In a telephone interview, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said that either 31-year-old Filipino Eric Santander De la Cruz, or his fellow Navy man Fernando Romero, 27, will likely be sentenced to 50 years to life, while the other will get 51 years to life in prison. “Because one of them pulled the trigger, an additional one year will be added to the sentence," Lewin explained. The Navy men were convicted of killing De la Cruz’s grandaunt, Sonia Rios Risken, based on “complicated circumstantial evidence that involve cell phone and bank records, and emails although the gun was missing from her home." Sonia was found dead on April 26, 2007 in her home in Lomita, California, a suburb south of Los Angeles. De la Cruz testified during the trial that Sonia, whom he called “Grandma," had raised him and was expecting to inherit her money and property. Prosecutors believe greed motivated De la Cruz and Romero to kill Sonia. “Mr. De la Cruz just wanted the money that he thought was coming to him, and he didn’t want to wait," Lewin said. ‘Lomita Black Widow’ The slain Sonia Rios Risken, 60, herself was earlier suspected of masterminding the deaths of her first husband, Earl John Bourdeau, and her second husband, Larry Risken, prompting media outlets to dub her as “Lomita Black Widow." (See: Trial begins for Pinay's murder in California) In 1987, Bourdeau, a retired Marine, was found shot to death inside Sonia’s family home in Cavite in the Philippines. He had planned to divorce her. Nineteen years later in April of 2006, Sonia’s second husband, Larry Risken, was also shot in the head during a visit to his wife’s family in Cavite. Larry had also wanted to divorce Sonia. His body was immediately cremated. On both their respective final trips to the Philippines, Bourdeau and Risken were not accompanied by Sonia. Crime details ‘unraveled’ During the trial of De la Cruz and Romero, it was disclosed that Sonia was the likely killer of Risken. The US Embassy in Manila wrote Risken’s father on March 10, 2009, saying that the Philippine police investigators had suspected Sonia Risken of having been behind his son’s killing. Police did not pursue the case following her death. Things unraveled when De la Cruz set up a ruse pretending to be Bordeau’s son, John, by creating an email account under John’s name in 2007. De la Cruz e-mailed the sister of Risken, saying he could retrieve her brother’s remains in the Philippines for $35,000. In a subsequent email, De la Cruz also offered to kill Sonia for a sum of money, according to prosecutors. In his email, De la Cruz said that he has a friend who can kill Sonia, and all he needed was her permission for the contract-killing “first and then [Risken’s sister] can pay him later." At the time of Sonia’s killing, both De la Cruz and Romero were supposed to be on duty aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. De la Cruz asked Romero to be “trigger man" because he could not pull the trigger himself. When Romero failed to kill Sonia at her beauty shop a week before her death on his first try, De la Cruz went ashore to help Romero finish the job. Sonia let her grandnephew into her house with Romero because she trusted him. “Fernando Romero… had to be the one to pull the trigger," Lewin said. “She was executed… Never saw it coming." Incriminating evidence Investigators traced the emails to the aircraft carrier and ports where De la Cruz was serving. The bank account where the money was to be sent is under the name of Maria Perez, De la Cruz’s girlfriend, who is now his wife. Romero and De la Cruz’s calling cards and cell phone records placed them together in Lomita at the time of the shooting. Romero’s phone number was reflected in Sonia’s caller ID before the beauty shop shooting. A few days after her death, De la Cruz went to Sonia’s attorney, asking if he was listed in her will. Donald Levinson, De la Cruz’s defense attorney, and Ludlow Creary, Romero’s defense lawyer, however, claim that the evidence against their clients was “too weak to convict the men of murder," saying, probers found no physical evidence, gun, fingerprints, or DNA to directly tying the men to the crime. The defense lawyers said that after Torrance Superior Court pronounces sentences on their clients on March 16, they are going to mount an appeal their conviction. – MRT/KBK, GMA News