[Narrator] He was beloved in his small California Town
for a unique talent.
He was well-known for being the Derby King,
and he was just a big, loving man,
and his whole purpose was to put a smile on your face.
[Narrator] Until one fateful Sunday morning...
I saw him laying there, he wasn't moving.
There was this massive pool of blood
and there was a clear wound to his chest.
[Narrator] A hidden life soon rises to the surface.
[John] There's nefarious people
that work in this type of a business.
You're talking a lot of money.
[Kayce] He was not happy in his marriage.
There were other folks that he was spending time with.
[Narrator] Amid rumors and false leads,
investigators find a very real obsession.
[Erick] She would go to his church,
the same grocery store.
It was starting to get weird.
[Laura] In her bedroom was a shrine.
A lot of pictures of him and his derby car.
Ultimately, we were dealing with a fatal attraction.
[music]
[Narrator] February 16th, 2014.
It's a quiet Sunday morning in Sonora, California...
A former gold rush town at the base of
the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
[Yvonne] Sonora is in the foothills.
It's a slower pace of life.
You can kinda go back 100 years, almost.
It's not like city living.
[Narrator] Just after 11 A.M.,
married couple Buddy and Kayce Thompson
pull into the parking lot of Ricky Robert's U2 Auto Shop.
They have stopped by the garage run by their friend,
49-year-old Rick Roberts,
to drop off an ATV they paid to be stored there.
[Kayce] Ricky was very good friends with
one of my best friends growing up.
So, we kinda got to know each other more on a,
a friendlier basis.
Ricky communicated with my husband,
"Hey, I'm getting ready for church.
Go ahead and, and park in front of the shop
if I'm not there."
We pulled into the shop, and it was quiet.
My husband said, "Hey, wait in the car.
I'm going to go see if he's even here."
My husband leaned in and then came out of the doorway.
And this look on his face,
he was pale and just in shock.
And he said, "You need to go in there."
[Narrator] A former first responder,
Kayce races to the door.
[Kayce] I saw him laying there.
He definitely had loss of color and he wasn't moving.
I observed a single gunshot wound to the chest.
There was blood underneath him.
I could tell without even touching him that he had passed.
[Narrator] Kayce and Buddy exit the shop.
She calls 911.
When the first responders get to the scene,
they find the victim's body on the floor inside.
They checked pulse.
It was obvious to them that he was deceased.
Ricky Roberts had two wounds;
grazing wound to the left shoulder,
also a wound to the center of the chest.
[Narrator] Sonora police officers call for backup
from the California Department of Justice.
They taped off the perimeter of the shop,
nobody was allowed to go in.
[Narrator] Meanwhile, Buddy and Kayce struggle to grasp
how their Sunday morning took such a dark turn.
Ricky was well-respected and well loved.
The kind of person that everybody got along with.
So, this was just absolutely like, mind-blowing.
What the hell happened here?
Why? How?
You're trying to make sense of it.
[Narrator] Born on January 2nd, 1965,
Rick Roberts grew up in Sonora.
[Erick] Ricky had one sister and three brothers.
Ricky and his mother were really close.
Ricky was a mama's boy.
She was a single mom for most of her life,
and she raised the kids herself.
Very Christian oriented, very strict.
Ricky was very close to his mother.
She liked him the best out of everybody.
He had a few brothers and one sister,
but Rick was the golden child.
And he'd like to go to his church with his mom,
and always be there, you know, for his mom.
[Narrator] Following high school,
Rick opted to join the workforce.
He started doing security work at a pretty young age.
[Kayce] He was a man of integrity.
And security work just seemed like a natural way
for him to make a living.
[Narrator] With his career path decided,
Rick found a hobby that would quickly become a passion...
Cars.
He had a family member who said, "Hey, you have a lot of energy,
you're creative.
Let's do this,
and we're gonna go work on cars."
[Narrator] Ricky loved to fix cars.
But even more, he loved to wreck them.
Rick took off, started to learn how to do destruction derbies.
Ricky was my uncle, a father figure,
and we did destruction derbies together
and worked with each other a lot.
The destruction derby is where you get a bunch of old cars,
and you make them as strong as you can.
The cars would bash into each other.
Last one standing typically would be the one to move on.
[Kay] My Ricky uncle loved it.
He wanted to make sure that he made the best of it.
[Narrator] In Sonora, derby was more than a sport.
It was a way of life,
and Rick Roberts had a reputation.
He was well-known all over the surrounding counties
for being the Derby King.
[Narrator] To support his hobby,
Rick rented a garage space in Sonora
that he dubbed Ricky Roberts' U2 Autobody.
[Erick] Rick, he just liked the whole process
of getting the car.
Get it, haul it to his place, and then start strippin' it out.
[Narrator] In 1990,
25-year-old-Rick had a chance encounter at a local bar
that led him into a whirlwind romance.
[Kayce] When he met his wife, there was a connection there,
and that she made him feel safe and appreciated.
They were like the biggest love birds you'd ever see.
And she stood right by him through all the derby stuff.
[Narrator] In July 1990, they married.
[Kayce] They got married up on top of the derby car.
It was adorable, unique, absolutely unique,
and it was great.
They were very happy.
[Narrator] After their wedding,
the couple began building a life together.
By the mid 2000s, they had added a new member to the family.
They had adopted their son,
and it was something that they found
to be one of the best things that they had done.
[Kayce] The child came into the picture,
you saw a transformation in Ricky.
He was just head over heels for this little boy.
[Narrator] By 2014, Ricky was now in his 40s,
and focused on family and fait.
He was devoted to his church and bringing the community together.
Ricky loved being part of that
and just being happy being among friends and family.
[Narrator] But Rick's happy family life
is abruptly halted when, on February 16th, 2014,
the Derby King is found dead on the floor of his autobody shop.
When homicide investigators arrive,
a crowd is already gathering outside Rick's garage.
[Erick] Buddy called me and told me what was going on.
We all crowded around, friends, family, everybody,
and we were all in shock of what happened.
[Laura] Rick's wife came to the shop
when the police presence became known.
She was distraught, absolutely distraught,
emotional, in shock.
She was adamant about seeing him before they had removed him.
[Narrator] Amid the chaos,
a neighbor steps forward to speak with investigators.
Crystal Wise did report that
she'd heard what sounded like gunshots around,
you know, this 10:20 to 10:30 A.M. timeframe.
Buddy and Kayce had called 911 shortly after 11 o'clock.
[Narrator] Investigators must determine if
the pair missed the killer by minutes,
or if there is more to their story.
To find out, Buddy and Kayce are escorted to the station
for more questioning
while authorities get their first look at the crime scene.
There were no signs of forced entry,
the door was open.
They found his phone, they found his wallet,
it had money in it.
All of his credit cards were present.
We quickly ruled out that this was any sort of robbery.
The blood looked still fresh,
and so they knew there was a smaller time window involved.
[Narrator] Coming up.
Investigators press Rick's friends for answers...
When investigation begins, everyone's a suspect.
[Narrator] And they uncover unsettling details
about his life.
He was entertaining other relationships.
When there's infidelity in marriage,
that opens up all kinds of possibilities and motive.
[music]
[Narrator] February, 2014.
Investigators in Sonora, California
are called to the brutal murder scene
of 49-year-old Rick Roberts.
[Laura] This is a small town. To have a homicide is shocking.
Rick's friends Buddy and Kayce Thompson,
who were the ones to find Rick, are on scene.
[Narrator] The couple is en route to the station
to give their statements.
However, Rick's wife begs for more time.
They did not attempt to interview Rick's wife
in any sort of sensitive way that day,
because she was really overcome with emotion.
She agreed to be interviewed later,
but her focus that day was on their son,
who was quite young.
[Narrator] Investigators then make their way
back inside the shop
to get a closer look at the crime scene.
Rick was laying sort of on his back in the shop,
on the floor of his shop,
with a large pool of blood around his body.
There was a gunshot wound to the victim's chest.
A grazing wound to the left shoulder.
[Narrator] Investigators are unable to locate a weapon,
but they do find another potentially important clue.
What they located, very close to Rick's body, was a shell casing.
[John] The casing belonged to a 9mm handgun,
and it was a semi-automatic.
There were two gunshot wounds discovered on the victim's body.
However, there was only one expended casing.
So, the possibility was that whoever had fired the gun
ran out of time and quickly just took off,
leaving the one casing.
[Narrator] Authorities bag up the shell for testing.
Outside, they come across another clue.
[Laura] So, there were footprints on the scene.
They compared tracks to Rick's boots
that Rick was wearing at the time.
They also knew what
Buddy, Taylor, and Kayce's footprints were
and where they had parked and entered the shop.
But this was a smaller footprint from, you know,
not likely a male.
It also had a real distinctive boot-type tread on it.
They measured it and they photographed,
and so we knew the size of it, we knew the tread of it.
[Narrator] As they wrap up at the crime scene,
investigators consider possible theories.
[John] Once you rule out robbery,
this was something possibly a little bit more personal.
[Narrator] At the station,
detectives speak with Kayce and Buddy Thompson separately.
But their stories remain the same.
When investigation begins, everyone's a suspect.
But they were very, very cooperative.
Everything they were telling investigators really matched up,
and they could eliminate them.
[Narrator] But investigators aren't letting them go just ye.
They press the Thompsons for information
about who might have wanted to harm Rick.
The questioning got a little bit more specific as to,
who did he hang out with?
How's his relationship with his wife?
[Narrator] Kayce admits that she has noticed tension
in Rick's marriage.
[Kayce] The couple months prior to his death,
I was just picking up on the cues of
the breakdown in communication.
There's a problem in the home.
[Narrator] While she doesn't know exactly why
there's tension between Rick ad his wife,
she's heard rumors.
She wasn't around the shop very often,
that myself and everybody knew that there were
some marital stresses going on.
He was entertaining other relationships.
When there's infidelity in a marriage,
that opens up all kinds of possibilities and motive.
[Narrator] The following day,
Rick's wife agrees to come in for an interview.
She confirms that there is some truth to the rumors.
She was aware that there had been infidelity,
and they were working on that.
Rick assured her it was over.
[Narrator] Rick's wife says she doesn't know the names
of any women her husband was associated with.
When asked for her whereabouts the morning of the murder,
she says she was at home with their nine year old son.
[Laura] She'd been home all morning with their son.
And then he confirmed that his mom had been with him
all morning and hadn't left the home.
[Narrator] Following the interview,
investigators return Rick's personal belongings to his wife.
They gave her Rick's wallet
and, and I think some keys and things to the shop.
[Narrator] Rick's wife appears to have a solid alibi,
forcing investigators to dive deeper into Rick's private life.
They turn to the tight-knit community of Sonora for help.
Now you're gonna start looking to talk to
Ricky's friends, anybody that might have information.
[Narrator] Friends tell detectives that Rick had
a lucrative side gig.
Ricky Roberts was dealing in scrap metal.
But this scrap metal,
what makes it unique is that it's worth money.
[Laura] He would take a lot of scrap metal
to these huge recycling centers and get paid.
[John] You're talking a lot of money.
Sometimes there's nefarious people
that work in this type of a business,
and so you wanna look into that.
The investigators interviewed the workers there to see,
"Hey, did you ever see Rick have any kind of, you know,
confrontation with anybody?
Was there any problems?"
[Narrator] But the promising lead
quickly becomes a dead end.
[Laura] Rick was well known down there.
Nobody knew of any sort of, you know,
confrontations that Rick had had with anybody.
And so those leads really didn't go anywhere.
[Narrator] Investigators are stumped,
until suddenly, Rick's wife shows back up
and hands them a lead.
During the investigation, Rick's wife brought us
a photograph that she had located in Rick's wallet.
She identified the photograph as her husband
and her son.
[Narrator] But it's the handwritten inscription
on the back that gets their attention.
The handwriting said, "My husband Rick and his son,"
but the son's name was misspelled
and she didn't recognize the handwriting.
[John] This isn't her writing,
somebody else is saying that Ricky Roberts was their husband.
[Narrator] Coming up.
The mysterious inscription reveals a hidden life...
[John] She was at the grocery store,
and she just felt that somebody was staring at her.
[Narrator] An unsettling obsession
takes center stage.
He had told her he wanted her to stop following him.
[music]
[Narrator] Within a week of the murder of
"Derby King" Rick Roberts,
investigators were hitting dead ends,
until Ricks' wife brings them a suspicious photograph.
[Laura] Rick's wife had found the photograph
in Rick's wallet.
She had noticed handwriting on the back that said,
"My husband Rick and his son,"
and she knew it wasn't her handwriting.
[Narrator] Rick's wife says she has no idea
who might have written the inscription...
But it does bring to mind a troubling encounter
she had three years earlier, in 2011.
[John] She was at the grocery store,
and she just felt that somebody was staring at her.
[Laura] This woman had, like, a cowboy hat on,
and was dressed all, you know, really western.
It was super creepy,
and she got in her car, and the woman followed them.
This vehicle followed her
all the way up until she got close to her home,
and then it veered off.
She immediately told Rick about it.
And Rick said, "Oh, I'll take care of it.
I know who it is."
He initially brushed it off as,
"some woman that's kind of obsessed with me."
So then she brought it to Rick's attention,
and he assured her it was over.
[Narrator] With this unnerving revelation,
investigators make discovering the mystery woman's identity
their top priority.
They head to the place where Rick spent even more time
than he did at the garage:
his church.
Detectives to go to the church,
and they started interviewing the pastor
and members of the church.
[Narrator] When asked for information about Ricky,
longtime member Susan Hume tells them about a woman
who started coming to church around three years ago...
Cheryl Lucero.
Sue tried to befriend Cheryl,
because she knew Cheryl was a new member.
So, they tried to make her feel welcome.
[Narrator] However, Susan says that she immediately noticed
that Cheryl's eyes were rarely on the pulpit.
[John] Susan observed her looking all the time,
staring at Ricky in the church.
[Narrator] Cheryl told Susan
that she recently moved from Modesto
and worked as a manager at a fast food restaurant.
To earn extra cash,
she also accepted a job clearing brush.
[Yvonne] At that time, Cheryl would have
an apartment in Sonora.
My husband Joe had hired her
to help with some work around our property.
Cheryl was kind of difficult to know.
You had to pull things out of her.
Cheryl's mother, I believe, lived in Nevada,
and her father in Modesto.
I knew that she had a daughter
and a son that lived in another state.
She was very quiet, very quiet.
[Narrator] In contrast to her quiet nature,
the way 45-year-old Cheryl dressed made her hard to miss.
[John] Cheryl loved to dress in cowboy gear,
to look like what some would say, "rodeo queen".
[Narrator] Cheryl's quirky get-up
drew the attention of church members...
As did her habit of staring at Ricky.
[John] Susan would confront Cheryl about that
and tell her that, you know,
she needed to basically knock this off.
[Narrator] Cheryl's reaction caught Susan off-guard.
Cheryl's response was like,
"Oh no, God has meant for us to be together."
So, it was clear that Cheryl wasn't there
because she was a member of the faith.
It was clear that Cheryl was there
because she wanted to be anywhere Rick was
that she could be.
[Narrator] Susan says the more she learned about
Cheryl's fascination with Rick,
the more concerned she got.
Sue, at one point, went to Cheryl's apartment,
and as they went by Cheryl's bedroom,
Sue looked in.
There was a shrine to Rick Roberts.
We're not talking about a photograph on a nightstand.
It's like a lot of pictures pasted,
all these photographs of him and his derby car.
Sue just sort of said, "What is that?"
And, "This is inappropriate, Cheryl."
Like, "Rick's married."
[Narrator] Susan's account concerns investigators.
Eager to learn more,
they reach out to one of Ricky's closes confidantes,
his nephew Erick.
He tells them that his uncle first met Cheryl back in 2009,
on one of their bi-weekly trips to Modesto.
After takin' the scrap load to the scrap yard,
we would go to Panda's Express and we would have lunch.
We got to be friends with all the, the employees there.
and so, this lady named Cheryl
was a supervisor.
She and Rick were trying to get a sponsorship
for Panda's Express for his derby car.
And so, we would get free lunches.
[Narrator] Once, Cheryl approached Erick
when Rick had stepped away.
[Erick] Cheryl came up to me one day,
and she gave me a little scrap paper
with her name and number on it.
[Narrator] She asked Erick to give it to his uncle.
I was assuming that she was trying to hit on him.
I went ahead and just,
I ripped it up and threw it away.
[Narrator] Soon after,
Erick says he and Rick spotted Cheryl everywhere.
[Erick] Cheryl would go to his church,
be at the same grocery store, same parking lot.
And it was starting to get weird.
Rick was startin' to get a little nervous.
He had told Cheryl he wanted her to stop following him.
[Narrator] But Erick says that didn't work,
and in 2010,
Rick revealed another troubling development.
Rick had shared with him that she had moved up here to Sonora
to be closer to Rick and was working at McDonald's.
He had told me that, "The girl was stalking me.
She was kinda loony, you can see it in her eyes."
[Narrator] However,
Erick says Rick felt in the months before his murder
that he had the situation under control.
[John] He hadn't had any communication with her
for quite some time.
And he no longer had anything to do with her.
[Narrator] When investigators check Rick's phone records,
they confirm that he had not been in contact
with Cheryl for some time.
[Laura] We didn't find anything related to Cheryl.
For two years leading up to his death,
there was just no contact.
[Narrator] Faced with the fact that Cheryl may be yet
another false lead,
investigators turn to the only evidence they have:
the .9mm shell casing.
The shell casing from the crime scene was processed,
and the Department of Justice was able to narrow
the type of firearm down to three different manufacturers.
We knew that it was a .9mm.
Detectives ran anyone that had registered in their name
those types of firearms that could.
So, they noticed Cheryl Lucero's name.
[Narrator] On March 12th,
investigators find Cheryl at her work,
a Sonora fast food restaurant,
and she agrees to come in for an interview
the following day.
She indicated that she really didn't know
Rick Roberts very well,
that she hadn't spoken to him in three to four years.
[John] The detectives asked her on the day that Ricky was shot,
what was she doing?
She stated that she was at work,
and that she clocked out at 10 A.M. in the morning
and she went straight home.
The witness said the gunshots were between
10 A.M. and 11 A.M.
[Narrator] Investigators ask her about the gun.
They went on to ask her if she could give them the gun
so they could go and check it out.
She was cooperating.
She tells him that, "Look, I'll bring the gun tomorrow."
[Narrator] But the next day passes
with no sign of Cheryl.
She told him she'd bring it in, but she never did.
[Narrator] Three days later,
investigators try to track her down.
[Laura] The address that they had was
listed on the paperwork for the gun.
[John] They talked to the landlord.
The landlord tells the detectives
she hasn't lived there for two years.
So, they couldn't find her at that given address.
[Laura] So then it's this whole cat and mouse game,
and they have to keep tracking her back to work.
It's like, hey, if you're innocent,
Why are you playing this?
[Narrator] Coming up.
A new narrative comes into play.
[Narrator] But an even darker truth is exposed.
She had created wedding invitations
announcing her marriage.
What you see is that she was obsessed with Ricky Roberts.
[music]
[Narrator] While it's clear the relationship between
Rick Roberts and Cheryl Lucero ended years ago,
her gun purchase and behavior since his murder
has made her suspect number on.
[John] She initially said that she was gonna bring the gun.
But time keeps going by,
and now she hasn't even showed up at all.
[Laura] The police go to her address,
they find out she hasn't lived at that apartment
in over two years.
[Narrator] On March 18th,
one month after Rick Roberts' murder,
investigators finally track Cheryl down
at the fast food restaurant where she works.
She says she moved and was now
living at an address in Twain Heart.
I believe it was November of 2012
that Cheryl moved in with us.
I thought, "Well, she's trying to save money,
so why don't we just rent her a room?
And then she can get rid of her apartment."
They once again told her they wanted her to come in
for an interview.
She indicated she was busy that day,
but that she'd come in the next day
and bring the firearm in so that they could compare it.
[Narrator] Investigators leave Cheryl to finish her shift,
but they don't take her at her word.
Rather than wait for her to come in the next day,
the detectives got a warrant and responded to
the Twain Heart address she'd provided them that evening.
[Narrator] Detectives are met by Cheryl,
and later, Yvonne and Joe Yniguez.
The sheriffs came to our home with a search warrant.
They told us that they were investigating
the murder of Rick Roberts,
and they wanted to search Cheryl's room.
It was surreal,
and I couldn't believe it was going on in my home.
[Narrator] An investigator combs through Cheryl's belongings.
He doesn't locate Cheryl's gun,
but he does find the next best thing.
So, he sort of opens this dresser drawer
and he finds a test fire envelope
that comes with your gun.
When you purchase a gun,
they give you a casing that was fired from your gun.
Now he has that casing to compare to
the casing at the scene.
[Narrator] Investigators take Cheryl back to the station.
There, Cheryl claims she quit
attending the same church as Rick
over two years ago,
when Rick started hitting on her.
[Narrator] Investigators steer the conversation
to Cheryl's whereabouts on the day of the murder.
[John] She clocked out at 10 A.M.,
and she said she went straight home.
The witness who heard the gunshots said
the gunshots were between 10 A.M. and 11 A.M.
So, they knew that Cheryl had time to clock out,
drive over to Ricky's garage, shoot him, and then leave.
[Laura] There were two different ways
she could have traveled from her place of work.
It's approximately seven to eight minutes to Rick's shop.
So, we knew that she had the ability to make it there
shortly after ten o'clock.
The detective continues to talk to her about the case.
She's denying any involvement.
[Narrator] Detectives don't let up.
Hours into the interrogation,
Cheryl suddenly changes her tune.
[Narrator] But the confession
makes little sense to investigators.
[Laura] She hadn't seen or talked to Rick Roberts in years,
and then she says it was an accident.
And it accidentally fired not once but twice.
[Narrator] Either way,
the statement is enough for an arrest.
They say, "Okay, we're gonna arrest you."
And she says, "What do you mean you're gonna arrest me?"
[Narrator] At that point, Cheryl's story changes again.
She is now protecting another person.
When asked who this other person was,
she tells detectives it's Chris Tinkham,
her former boyfriend.
[Narrator] She claims Chris knew Rick hit on her in the past
and wouldn't let it go.
She gives him this gun,
and just wants him to go over and to scare Ricky.
[Laura] Chris Tinkham was just gonna
rough Rick up and scare Rick.
And then he came back and he'd killed Rick,
and she was, you know, surprised.
[Narrator] Detectives inform her that she is still under arrest.
[Narrator] One day after Cheryl's arrest,
investigators set out to bring Chris Tinkham in.
Chris is in shock, and eager to clear his name.
He has not been in a relationship with
Cheryl Lucero for years.
He also tells him that at the time of the shooting,
he's at his place of employment.
His boss, you know, verified that he'd been at work early.
So, there was absolutely no way
that he could have been involved.
After ruling out Chris Tinkham, they started to realize that
Cheryl was just making up more lies.
They need to focus more on her.
[Narrator] The day after her arrest,
authorities uncover a storage unit
rented by Cheryl.
One of the boxes that detectives found in the storage unit
was filled with Rick memorabilia.
[Narrator] Among the hundreds of photos,
they make a particularly disturbing find...
She had created wedding invitations
announcing her marriage to Rick Roberts.
What you see is that Cheryl Lucero was
obsessed with Ricky Roberts.
[Narrator] Coming up.
Yet another tale of obsession emerges.
I discovered that Cheryl was involved with my husband Joe.
[Narrator] Will the truth finally come out?
She pointed the gun, and she told him, you know,
"I never wanna see you in my life again."
[music]
[Narrator] The arrest of 45-year-old Cheryl Lucero
for the murder of Rick Roberts
leaves the small town of Sonora, California reeling.
The next morning, we found out that she had been arrested.
All of it was shocking.
In the storage unit, the detectives did find
a pair of Cheryl Lucero's boots
and were able to match the tread on her boot
to the specific footprint from the crime scene.
They were able to take the test fire casing
that had come from her firearm
and compare it with the casing that was located
next to Rick Robert's body.
And the criminalist determined to 100% certainty
that her firearm had fired the bullet
that shot Rick Roberts.
In July of 2014,
Cheryl goes to court, and there, she pleads not guilty.
[Narrator] At her trial in 2015,
prosecutors allege that,
following a brief affair with Rick in 2012,
Cheryl became obsessed.
He quickly realizes he needs to stop this relationship.
And by all accounts, he attempted to do that.
[Narrator] But Rick couldn't stop her.
We were dealing with what ultimately was
a fatal attraction.
[Narrator] Over the next few years,
Cheryl made fake wedding invitations
and created a shrine to her unrequited love.
Prosecutors allege that almost three years after
Rick ended the affair,
Cheryl was still stewing.
[John] But she was still obsessed.
And she just felt that there was no other way
to stop her emotional hurt but to kill him.
[Narrator] Two days after Valentine's Day 2014,
she enacted her plan.
She left her place of employment at 10 A.M. in the morning.
She drives over to Ricky Roberts' business.
There, she confronts him.
[Laura] Per her own interview,
she pointed the gun at Rick, she told him,
"You know, I never wanna see you in my life again."
She shoots not once, but she shoots him twice.
She then leaves him on the floor and walks out.
She gets rid of the gun.
Where it is to this date, nobody knows except her.
[Narrator] In a surprise move, Cheryl takes the stand.
Once again, she tries to cast blame elsewhere.
She tries to pin this case on Joe Yniguez, the landlord.
That's who she says was the real person
behind the killing of Ricky Roberts.
[Yvonne] Sometime in April,
I discovered that Cheryl was
also involved with my husband Joe.
And I came home for lunch from work,
and found them together.
I said, "You're gonna have to leave."
I said, "I'll give you time to find another place."
I was trying to be reasonable.
But she still hadn't moved out by June,
when the Sheriff's Department came and also interviewed Joe.
[Narrator] Cheryl walks the jury though
yet another version of events.
The motive that Cheryl Lucero gives for Joe doing the killing
is that he was jealous.
Because she had told Joe about Ricky,
and that he was upset,
and he used that gun,
and he himself killed Ricky Roberts.
[Narrator] The story falls apart when Joe's wife, Yvonne,
takes the stand.
I knew he had nothing to do with it
because he was home at the time of the murder.
[Narrator] After a 15 day trial, the case goes to the jury.
[John] On September 4th, 2015,
the jury came back with the verdict of guilty
of first-degree murder,
and also guilty of the use of a firearm in a crime.
[Laura] Her sentence was 50 to life,
25 to life on the homicide,
and in 25 to life for use of the gun.
Let her bathe in her mistakes.
Let her live in her own misery.
She is sitting where she's supposed to be sitting.
[Narrator] With Cheryl behind bars,
Rick's family is left to pick up the pieces.
[Kay] He was there for everybody.
Whether you were, you know, in a dark place or doing your best,
he was there for you.
He was just a big, loving man,
and his whole purpose was to put a smile on your face.
We don't remember him as how he got murdered.
He'll always be remembered as the Derby King.
[music]