Riverside County man to be sentenced in Facebook murder case
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A Riverside County man convicted of creating a phony Facebook profile to lure a man and kill him is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
Manuel Guzman Jr., who was 17 at the time of 2011 murder, created the profile under the name Rebecca Santhiago and used photos of an East Coast model, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.
Guzman tricked 23-year-old Eddie Leal into going to a park in San Jacinto, where Leal thought would meet Santhiago.
Guzman shot Leal multiple times, according to prosecutors. Leal, who lived in San Jacinto, was found in the driver’s seat of a Toyota Corolla.
Guzman faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole or 50 years to life because he was a minor when he committed the murder, the district attorney’s office said.
[For the record, 5:14 p.m. Oct. 17: An earlier version of this post incorrectly spelled Manuel Guzman Jr.’s first name as Manual.]
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