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ANAHEIM, Calif., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- California authorities charged a man with hiring two gang members to murder his new wife in 1998 for her insurance money.
Nuzzio Begaren, 50, and two reputed gang members were charged Wednesday in the shooting death of Elizabeth Begaren, a state corrections officer who had married her husband less than a year earlier.
The Orange County District Attorney's office said in a written statement that Begaren was being held without bail along with Jose Luis Sandoval, 36, and Rafael Garcia Miranda, 45.
Begaren allegedly took out a $1 million insurance policy on his bride a few days after they were married on July 4, 1997. Sometime between then and January 1998, he allegedly made contact with a Los Angeles street gang to hire a hit man.
The shooting took place on a highway ramp in Anaheim when the two gunmen allegedly ran the Begarens' car off the road in an allegedly staged robbery.
The DA's office said the case went cold until its investigators and Anaheim detectives dug up new unspecified evidence that resulted in murder charges that could send all three defendants away for life if they are convicted.
