Two members of a sadomasochistic sex triangle have been jailed for life without parole for murdering the young wife of a Marine deployed in Afghanistan.
Louis Ray Perez and Dorothy Maraglino were sentenced on Thursday in San Diego Superior Court for the first-degree murder of Brittany .
Prosecutors said Mrs innocently became friends with the three and was killed in April 2012 to fulfil their sadistic fantasy.
The 22-year-old, who planned to file for divorce and return home to Pennsylvania, was last seen with Perez.
He had offered to help her move from an apartment near Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base, north of Oceanside, California, and invited her on a dinner cruise.
She texted a friend the word “help” on the night she disappeared. Her naked body was found four days later near a lake.
Perez, 49, stared at the ground during most of the sentencing hearing. He thanked family members and friends for supporting him through “this horrible and trying time” and apologised to those who suffered during a brief statement, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Maraglino, 40, did not make a statement. Her lawyer had asked the judge not to sentence her to life in prison without parole, claiming it was a “cruel and unusual punishment”.
Another woman, Jessica Lynn Lopez, 28, is due to be sentenced for murder on 15 January.
Mrs mother, Michelle Wrest, told the court in a letter she was glad those responsible for her daughter’s death would go to prison for life and said she was unable to forgive them.
(c) Sky News 2015
