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A Menlo Park jewelry store owner was sentenced Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court for masterminding a plot to kidnap, rape and murder a female employee after she resisted his romantic advances.
Ricardo Zambrano, 38, of Fresno was sentenced by Judge Thomas Smith to 39 years to life in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, along with allegations that an accomplice in the crime was armed with a firearm. He was arrested following the June 2005 kidnapping by gunpoint of a woman who worked at his store inside the Mi Rancho market on Willow Road.
Mr. Zambrano will be appealing the decision but Deputy District Attorney Morris Maya does not think the appeal will be successful.
“I absolutely glad to see that someone who deserved to be locked away for the rest of his life got what was coming to him,” Mr. Maya said. “He is among the most dangerous people that I’ve dealt with in my 11 years as a prosecutor and I’m glad that he won’t be harming anyone in the near future.”
Mr. Zambrano was convicted in April of conspiracy to commit rape, kidnapping for the purpose of rape, kidnapping in the commission of a carjacking, threatening a witness and false imprisonment, but the jury deadlocked 11-1 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
Mr. Zambrano’s original sentence was up to life in prison, but he would have been eligible for parole in as few as seven years so a retrial was requested, Mr. Maya said. A jury found him guilty of the conspiracy charges Nov. 16.
“I’m happy that our perseverance in pursuing the conspiracy charge paid off,” Mr. Maya said.
Alfonzo Cuevas Gonzalez, a 40-year-old Fresno man, carried out the kidnapping after being hired by Mr. Zambrano. Mr. Gonzalez carjacked the victim, a woman in her 20s from Mexico, and drove her to Fresno. At that point the plan went sour when he could not find his accomplices. The victim eventually escaped with the help of a Fresno woman who had foreknowledge of the plan.
A separate jury convicted Mr. Gonzalez in March of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit rape, kidnapping and felony threats. He was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison June 8.
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