Two California men were convicted of the revenge murder of a man who had caused a DUI crash that resulted in injuries to one of them.
Robert Manor, 54, and Victor Merle Gray, 53, could face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors alleged that victim Raymond Wright, 55, had caused a DUI crash in 2011, which severely injured Manor and his wife.
Wright served jail time and probation for the incident. However, Manor held a grudge against Wright for years and decided to take revenge in 2018.
Wright, a father of three, went missing from Rocklin, California, on Thursday 11th January 2018. The last anyone heard from him was a phone call that morning.
His relatives grew concerned and searched his home and a shop he rented in the Rio Linda area near Sacramento.
On January 13, 2018, Wright’s brother encountered a strange man inside his brother’s home and called the police. The man ran out of the house, but police found a soda cup filled with a fresh drink in the kitchen. They tested the straw for DNA and uploaded it to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database. Wright’s truck was found in the Sacramento area days later, but his remains were never found.
Prosecutors identified Victor Merle Gray as the strange man in Wright’s house and found key evidence in the murder. Gray was involved in another DUI crash on January 27, 2018, and led state troopers on a high-speed chase. There was a crash resulting in injuries, and when authorities searched Gray’s van, they found a blood-soaked raincoat, Wright’s wallet, and some of Wright’s other property.
Further investigation revealed a letter from Gray to Manor complaining about not being paid for “delivering dude” and asking Manor to take care of the person “who hand delivered you your revenge.”
Other evidence linked Manor to the revenge killing and hiring Gray to kidnap Wright from his shop in Rio Linda. The DNA found in Wright’s kitchen matched Gray’s, a convicted felon, on CODIS.
Both defendants were convicted of first-degree murder on Friday 17th March 2023, with the special circumstance that the murder was committed during the commission of a kidnapping. They were also found guilty of kidnapping for ransom causing death.
The trial ended with a possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for Manor and Gray.
Despite never finding Wright’s remains, prosecutors were able to obtain a conviction based on the evidence presented in court.
