Camarillo businessman James Fayed was sentenced to death Thursday for arranging his wife's murder in a Century City parking garage in 2008.
A jury in May recommended the death penalty for the former gold trader after finding him guilty of murder and conspiracy following a monthlong trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Fayed's wife, Pamela, 44, was stabbed 13 times in the Watts Tower parking garage as she was going to her car after a meeting between the couple and their attorneys.
The Fayeds were in the middle of a divorce and a federal probe of their gold-trading business.
Fayed hired an employee to plan the assault, according to prosecutors. The employee and two men prosecutors allege carried out a fatal ambush are awaiting trial on murder and conspiracy charges.
Fayed's attorneys said the conviction, sentence and rejection of the motion will be appealed, a process that will last decades.
Fayed hired employee Jose Luis Moya, 51, for about $25,000 to orchestrate the assault, prosecutors said during the trial. Moya hired Gabriel Marquez, 46, who commissioned Steven Vicente Simmons, 23, to fatally stab Pamela Fayed.
Within days of Pamela Fayed's killing, Fayed, 48, was arrested by FBI agents on a charge of running a money transmitting business without the proper license.
The Fayeds' revenue was about $160 million in 2008, while the couple's net worth was about $12 million, prosecutors said at the trial. The Fayeds owned a home in Camarillo and a 200-acre ranch in Moorpark. Pamela stood to gain $1 million in the divorce.
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