SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A judge sentenced Cody Reece to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday for the murder of a Sandy woman in 2010.
Cody Reece was found guilty in July for July 2010 murder of Magda Aleman. Reece will begin serving his time in the Utah State Prison after he serves out a current sentence in federal prison.
Aleman was found by her husband Isreal Aleman on July 13, 2010. Police say she was beaten and shot.
Police said there had been a struggle between Aleman and her killer.
Her husband Israel Aleman was at work when Magda was killed and found her body as he returned home.
Israel Aleman owns several Mexican restaurants in Utah.
According to a probable cause statement, investigators claim Reece was attempting to burglarize the Aleman home on the night of Magda's murder.
Reece was arrested and booked for burglary on a separate case the same night.
Prosecutors say Reece tried to break into a home after the murder of Aleman, but alert neighbors spotted him and helped with the arrest. Sandy police suspected Reece of the murder but didn't have enough evidence to charge him.
According to court documents, investigators saw blood on Reece's t-shirt and took it to a crime lab for testing. The lab results showed that the blood on the t-shirt matched DNA from Magda Aleman.
The probable cause statement also said that Reece admitted that on the night of Magda Aleman's murder, he tried to wash the blood off the shirt and that he had gotten rid of the weapon used in the burglary.
Reece was also indicted on federal weapons charges on August of 2010.
