Maria Moore, and Marvel Salvant.
A California woman and her accomplice are set to spend the rest of their days in prison for killing a chef in a life insurance scheme. Plotter Maria Moore, 53, and gunman Marvel Salvant, 49, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for murdering Dominic Sarkar, 56.
“Salvant was also sentenced to an additional 25 years pertaining to use of a firearm,” the Fremont Police Department said.
The hearing happened on March 9, but police announced it on Monday.
As previously reported, authorities said Salvant admitted to others that he was going to be getting a lot of money for something terrible.
“I’m an evil person … I committed a cardinal sin … I already did it,” he said, according to court documents obtained by The East Bay Times. “So, ain’t no turning back from here.”
That point of no return was sneaking into Sarkar’s home, and shooting the sleeping man. Fremont cops said they got a 911 call on Oct. 8, 2018. One of Sarkar’s neighbors reported hearing gunshots and seeing a man run from the home, then flee on a bike.
“A male was then seen on the footage riding a bicycle towards the victim’s residence from where Defendant Salvant’s vehicle parked,” the Alameda County prosecutors have written. “Minutes after the murder, the same male was seen on the video footage returning to the vehicle. Cell phone location data then showed Defendant Salvant leaving the area back to his residence in the Sacramento area.”
Authorities linked Salvant to Moore, who wired him $500 the month before the murder. They texted each other leading up to and immediately after the killing, prosecutors said. According to cops, they had lived together in Seaside, California, several years before.
Moore claimed she had an occasional sexual relationship with Sarkar, who was an executive chef at the Passage to India restaurant in the city of Mountain View, but it turned out she was the financial beneficiary if he died. Records show she and Sarkar got a $500,000 life insurance policy on him in April 2016. His two daughters were the contingent beneficiaries, but the following September, they were removed and replaced with Moore’s son. Then, in 2017, Sarkar got a $300,000 policy. Again, his daughters were the initial beneficiaries, but that got changed in January 2018. Moore replaced the daughters, and she became the sole benefactor.
[Booking photos via Fremont Police Department]