Guilty verdict for ’18 slaying
Ringleader in murder-for-hire plot convicted
A woman accused of orchestrating a murder-forhire plot was sentenced to life in prison this week after a jury found her guilty in the 2018 slaying of Janice Zengotita-Torres, court records show.
Ishnar López-Ramos, 41, was convicted at trial Monday on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping with intent to inflict harm or terrorize, carjacking and robbery.
Authorities said López-Ramos hired Alexis Ramos-Rivera and his girlfriend, Glorianemarie Quiñones-Montes, to kill a woman she viewed as a romantic rival.
They mistakenly stalked Zengotita-Torres — a coworker of the intended target —from her job at a clothing store at The Loop mall near Kissimmee to her apartment, where they kidnapped her.
The pair put Zengotita-Torres, 42, in the back of her own SUV and drove her to López-Ramos’ apartment near The Mall at Millenia in Orlando, authorities said.
Even after realizing they had the wrong person, López-Ramos and Ramos-Rivera beat her and covered her head with garbage bags, suffocating her, prosecutors said.
After her family reported her missing, Zengotita-Torres’ body was found by Spectrum cable workers near Ormond Beach.
During Ramos-Rivera’s trial in November 2021, Quiñones-Montes tearfully testified that her boyfriend pressured her to participate in the murder plot.
Quiñones-Montes testified that she also cried during the abduction —and Zengotita-Torres comforted her, assuring her that she would cooperate with her captors.
Quiñones-Montes told jurors she was living in Puerto Rico with her boyfriend in December 2017 when Ramos-Rivera told her a woman had offered him a job in Kissimmee.
He didn’t say what the job was but said they would start a new life in Florida, she told jurors. López-Ramos paid for the couple to fly from Puerto Rico to Florida and housed them in her apartment late that December, Quiñones-Montes said.
Ramos-Rivera was found guilty of first-degree murder at trial and sentenced in December 2021 to life in prison. Quiñones-Montes was sentenced to 22 years behind bars in a plea deal.