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chapter 2 : Kendra Hatcher

Kendra Hatcher was born on February 30, 1980, in Springfield, Illinois. She graduated from DePauw University and the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry. Kendra had a passion for traveling, working with children, and practicing Bikram yoga. She accepted a position at Smile Zone in Dallas, Texas. kendra eventually met Dr. Ricardo “Ricky” Paniaga through Tinder. After their first date, they became inseparable. However, Ricky had a lingering connection with someone from his past—Brenda Delgado. Brenda was Ricky’s ex-girlfriend; they began dating in 2012, and their relationship lasted for three years. After their breakup, Brenda became obsessed with Ricky. She had access to his emails, iCloud passwords, and even HAD a key to his apartment, along with a location-tracking app. This enabled her to discover Kendra. Brenda stalked Kendra’s Facebook and learned that they had both gone on a trip to California and Austin. As Brenda’s life started to fall apart, she became enraged watching Ricky and Kendra’s lives come together. In her anger, she soon PLANNED TO MURDER KENDRA SO SHE hired a hitman and a getaway driver . On September 2, 2015, a day before Kendra and Ricky were to go on another trip, a pedestrian heard screaming from the parking garage and, alongside gunshots, saw a Jeep Cherokee speeding out of the garage. Shortly after, he spotted Kendra’s body lying on the ground, lifeless; she had been shot in the head. Police were called to the scene, but there were no clues to follow. Investigators released the security camera footage to the public. Ricky was questioned by the police. He later stated that he was out getting dinner for himself and Kendra at the time of the murder. The police had cleared him as a suspect. A few days later, Jose Luis Ortiz showed up at the police station, stating that the Jeep belonged to him and that he had let Brenda use the car on the day of the murder. During the investigation, police learned that Brenda threatened to get him deported. They also discovered the getaway driver was 23-year-old Crystal Cortes. Brendra offered Crystal 500 dollars. Brenda and Crystal used to work together, and sometimes they would follow Kendra and Ricky. Crystal agreed to help Brenda because she was financially struggling and needed money to support her son. When police questioned Crystal, she revealed that Brenda instructed her to hire a hitman to carry out the murder, which would lead investigators to 31-year-old Kristopher Love. He was brought in for questioning, and later he determined that Crystal told him about robbing Kendra, and Brenda had promised to connect him to the Mexican cartel. Brenda was the mastermind behind Kendra’s murder. The police arrested Crystal and Kristopher for the murder of Kendra. When they wanted to arrest Breandra, she had fled to Mexico. Seven months later, she was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list. She was arrested shortly after, and prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty to secure Mexico’s agreement to extradition. Cortes pleaded guilty to murder and agreed to testify against Love and Delgado as part of a plea deal. Love was convicted of capital murder in a separate trial in 2018 and sentenced to death. In June 2019,Delgado went on trial. Prosecutors presented several witnesses who testified that Delgado had solicited them to commit the murder. Additionally, Cortes provided testimony explaining how Delgado had assisted in planning the killing. When Kendra’s family took the stand, she didn’t even make eye contact with them, but once Ricky took the stand, she couldn’t keep her eyes off him. The jury took only 18 minutes to reach a guilty verdict. As a result, Delgado was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.