A Sacramento County jury on Thursday found Jeannette Lucille Nunes, her son Michael Anthony Espinosa and Miguel Esquibel guilty of first-degree murder in the 2024 killing of Vitaliy Zaytsev, a CVS manager who was shot outside his Carmichael home. Prosecutors argued the trio carefully plotted the slaying to collect on Zaytsev’s life-insurance policy, a money motive that loomed over the entire trial. All three remain jailed and are scheduled to return to Sacramento Superior Court on July 24 for sentencing.
The verdicts followed weeks of testimony and evidence that prosecutors said tied the defendants to the killing, according to The Sacramento Bee. Jurors also convicted Espinosa of being a felon in possession of a firearm and found true sentencing enhancements for using a gun and for carrying out the murder for financial gain. The District Attorney’s Office said Nunes and Espinosa now face potential life terms, while Esquibel faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in prison.
The shooting was reported just before 11 p.m. on May 3, 2024, on the 4900 block of Hillridge Way near Will Rogers Drive, where deputies found Zaytsev wounded by gunfire and sitting in his vehicle in the driveway, according to CBS Sacramento. Investigators say an assailant walked up to the parked car, opened fire multiple times, then left the scene before officers arrived.
Insurance Dispute And Legal Stakes
Federal court filings show that Zaytsev had taken out a $250,000 life-insurance policy naming Nunes as the primary beneficiary and Espinosa as a contingent beneficiary, and that Farmers New World Life filed an interpleader after his death to sort out competing claims, according to Justia. That civil case has moved forward alongside the criminal prosecution and underscores the state’s contention that the policy money helped drive the murder plot. Under California’s slayer statute, a conviction for a felonious and intentional killing can bar a beneficiary from receiving policy proceeds, a rule outlined on Justia…