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Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, August 3,1994 9 T om Sanders was one of those gentlemen who made an extremely lucrative living off women. No, he didn't have a stable of prostitutes. He was far more subtle than that. Members of the opposite sex fell hard for handsome, muscular Tom. He often had 20 . women on the string at the same time. One way or another, they all kept a steady supply of cold hard cash flowing into Tom's pockets. As a nightclub nightclub èmployee working in Albuquerque, he had the opportunity to meet a variety of women. Obviously he took advantage of his position. One fine day in 1989, Tom was making a bank deposit for the nightclub where he worked when he met 24- year-old Christine Torres. Tom took one look at Christine and quickly calculated calculated it would take him about a week to have her enjoying the action between the sheets. Naturally, she would also be an ideal source of funds. After all, who was closer to money than a bank teller? Tom was wrong. It took two weeks. Once the couple became regular lovers, Christine rather recklessly made unauthorized withdrawals from bank clients' accounts. She was soon exposed and unceremoniously unceremoniously fired. Undaunted by this reversal in her life of crime, Christine obtained employment with a local university as, of all things, a cashier. Within a period of a few months, she had dipped into students' tuition tuition fees to the tune of $48,000. In October 1990, Christine pleaded guilty to forgery and fraud. She spent six months in the cooler to contemplate the error of her ways and still had an embezzlement charge hanging over her head upon her release. Now, folks, you would think we were talking about a footloose and fancy free young lady without a responsibility in the world. But no, our Christine was Mrs. Robert Torres, a married married woman who lived in a comfortable home on Jenaro St. with her husband, husband, mother and two young children. Christine had been married for four years to 27-year-old Robert, who was also a bank employee. As a matter matter of fact, it was the day of their fourth wedding anniversary anniversary when the tragedy took place. On Thursday, May 24, 1990, Christine's mother came home from her place of employment at about 8 o'clock in the evening. Nothing unusual had happened happened that day. Christine had taken the two children out to a park and was expected home momentarily. momentarily. Robert was usually home from work to greet them at the door. This night would be different. Christine's mother entered the house to find the place in total disarray. Robert had been shot directly in the heart with a bullet from a rifle. He lay in a pool of blood near the front door. Upon checking at the bank, investigators discovered that he had left for home shortly before 5 p.m. The day after the murder, murder, police received disturbing disturbing calls bad mouthing Christine, telling them she had a no-good boyfriend named Tom Sanders. It took only a few hours for her checkered past to be revealed to authorities. Tom's past was scrutinized by police as well. Christine wasn't the only bank employee who had been talked into dipping into the bank's coffers. One woman had swindled the bank out of $120,000, most of which she turned over to Tom, right up until the time she was arrested. Tom, the cad, had a wife and child stashed away somewhere while he coerced and charmed other women to steal for him. This particular particular woman said that at one time during their relationship relationship she loved Tom and would have done anything for him. Based on little more than their dubious past and their ongoing affair, Christine and Tom were taken into custody separately separately and questioned. Both denied any complicity in Robert's murder and both were released. Three months later, a search warrant was obtained to enter Tom's home. Inside, police found items stolen from the Torres residence. The missing rifle was not among the items found. Despite their inability to locate the murder weapon, detectives believed they had enough on both Christine and Tom to charge them with Robert's murder. A few days before Christine was scheduled to stand trial, her attorney reached a plea-bargain arrangement with the prosecution. prosecution. Christine agreed to plead guilty to murder in the second degree, fraud and conspiracy to commit murder in return for a maximum sentence of 20 years. As part of the agreement, agreement, she would testify against Tom Sanders. Christine testified that on the day of the murder she and Tom drove to her residence residence and burglarized it early in the afternoon when she knew her neighbors would not be at home. They loaded the loot into Tom's truck and took it to his house. Then she drove back to her house and dropped Tom off to lie in wait for her husband. Robert's life had been insured for $24,000. The policy included a double indemnity clause, doubling the payoff to $48,000 should death be caused by an accident. accident. Christine went on to reveal that the university had agreed to drop pending embezzlement charges against her if she repaid the $48,000 sh&had misappropriated. misappropriated. As agreed, Christine was sentenced to 20 years in prison. ■ Tom Sander's" life of fleecing innocent women was exposed in court. The evidence against him, including the stolen goods found in his home, as well as Christine's testimony, left the jury no other choice but to find him guilty of first-degree murder. murder. He maintained his innocence throughout his trial and still contends he was set up and betrayed by Christine. On Aug. 28,1991, Tom was sentenced to 30 years in prison with no possibility of parole.