TAMPA, Florida (AP) - A former Latin King gang member who arranged a Tampa Bay area murder-for-hire plot has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A Tampa federal judge sentenced Michael Garcia on Wednesday. He could have been sentenced to life, but the judge showed leniency because of Garcia's cooperation.
Prosecutors say 33-year-old Christie Fay Bottorff and her husband, 42-year-old Jerry Bottorff, hired 25-year-old Luis Angel Lopez to kill the woman's former husband, 37-year-old Thomas Lee Sehorne, in June 2007. The Tampa Tribune reports that Christie Fay Bottorff received $1 million in life insurance proceeds after the fatal shooting. She later married Jerry Bottorff.
The Bottorffs said Garcia, a friend, arranged the hit with Lopez.
The Bottorffs and Lopez have all been sentenced to life in prison.
