It all occurred over a laptop.
27-year-old San Pedro resident Ginie Samayoa was a rather brilliant identity thief with her laptop, successfully hacking into corporate bank accounts and making purchases that slid by unnoticed by the corporations.
Her friend, 35-year-old Whittier resident Michael Lee Bonfiglio, found her talent fascinating and, according to the evidence that was eventually to be held against him, was ultimately jealous of her capabilities.
On January 30 of 2009, prosecutors allege that Samayoa willingly went with Bonfiglio—along with Raul Tiscareno, 29, and Daniel Keith Martinez, 37, also from Whittier—from her apartment near South Pacific Avenue and 36th Street in San Pedro towards a diner two blocks away where she was forced to park.
It is alleged that Martinez was the triggerman who shot Samayoa in the back of the head while still seated in the car. Following the murder, all three men escaped in a getaway car nearby along with her laptop, filled with credit card numbers at the disposal of the suspects. Samayoa succumbed to her wounds the next day at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
A Long Beach jury convicted Bonfiglio on March 23 of first degree murder with a special allegation that the killing occurred during a robbery, conspiracy to commit a crime, and second-degree robbery.
Following the conviction—and the lack of seeking a death penalty by the prosecution despite special allegations—Long Beach Superior Court Judge Mark Kim imposed a lifelong prison sentence without the possibility of parole. His sentence hearing is scheduled for this Friday.
Martinez and Tiscareno, who met a 9-3 deadlocked jury on his supposed guilt the first time around, are still awaiting their trials.