I want to thank by subscriber Adrian who messaged me the other day with this story
request. The band grammy winning band Los Lobos is probably best known for
their cover of La Bamba which topped the billboard charts and their works
have been covered by numerous high profile artists including elvis costello and robert
plant.,but today I want to talk about a story involving the band that was truly horrific.
Sandra Rosas, wife of Los Lobos guitarist Cesar Rosas would discover in the early 90’s that she
was adopted and would make it a mission of hers to find her biological family.. Sandra
had learned that she had been adopted as a child and began looking for biological family.. She
would end up discovering she had a half brother named Gabriel Gomez. who wasn’t a
model citizen having racked up arrests for drug possession and arson. Despite
his struggles in life the Rosas helped out Gomez giving him money and allowing him to
stay on their property in Rowland Heights, a suburb of Los Angeles. The Rosas even helped
Gomez find a construction job and a job as part of the road crew for Los Lobos.
But as time went on, their relationship soon grew sour and the Rosas asked gomez to move
out and even helped him find an apartment and new job working construction. Part of
their relationship dissolving was Gomez demanding more money and at one point the Rosas considered
cutting Gomez off completely. Then one night on October 23, 1999 Sandra was home alone,
her husband was out on the road on tour in new orleans, while her 3 daughters were out of the
house. Her daughters would come home and discoverd their mother wasn’t around and her van was gone
and there was shattered glass on the driveway. One of the daughters placed a call to their mother’s
cell phone and allegedly overheard Gomez making threats to Sandra. The daughter recognized Gomez
voice. In New Orleans as Los Lobos was about to go onstage in Louisiana guitarist Cesar Rosas
learned his wife Sandy was missing from their home. Rosas would head back home immediately.
The day after Rosas disappearance Gomez would be arrested by police in connection with her
disappearance. Despite not having any evidence the police held him in prison on a parole violation,
which gave authorities time to search for Rosas body and van. Several days later The missing
van was found near the Rosas home containing a mixture of blood from both from both Gomez
and Rosas. There was no body tough. Law enforcement officials would note that
Gomez had several bruises on his upper body at the time of his arrest. Five weeks after
Sandra went missing Gomez would be charged by police with murder and kidnapping. Despite not
having a body proesecutors felt confident they had enough evidence to convict Gomez.
The trial would begin in January of 2000 with Gomez pleading not
guilty to the charges of murder and kidnapping.
Gomez’s defense attornoey argued that the prosecution’s evidence was mostly circumstantial.
Gomez could have faced the death penalty but The prosecutors did not push for it in the case,
possibly because there was no body and by the time he was sentenced there still was no body
found. The prosecution claimed Gomez killed his half sister according to the LA Times who write
and i quote because he was jealous of the family’s fame and wealth stemming from the
Grammy-winning rock group. He said Gomez feared she would cut him off from this “meal ticket.”
Nearly 11 months later In November of 2000 the jury would find Gomez guilty of murder and
kindnapping due to overwhelming evidence despite a body never being found. The jury spent less than 2
hours deliberating the verdict. Gomez attorney claimed his client felt great remorse after
hearing the verdict and at the urging of the judge decided to show authorities where he hid
the body. It took Gomez a week to show authorities where he hid the body as according to his attorney
he had trouble remembering where he put Rosas remains. Her body would be eventually located
by police from a shallow grave in the Santa Clarita Valley, which is north of Los Angeles,