Stone Cold Killer Sisters
By: Lisa Marie Fuqua
Tags: Teenagers, History, Culture, True Crime, Justice

These teenage sisters were not only best friends, but they enjoyed deceiving men and committing murder together.

Margaret (left) and Regina DeFrancisco (right) Mugshots | via Oxygen

Man Falls For a Bad Girl

In the summer of 2000, Oscar Velazquez, 22, was a truck driver and described by family and friends as a hard worker. He made decent money and recently had just purchased a new Camaro Z28.

Unfortunately for Oscar, he happened to drive by the courthouse one day when Regina DeFrancisco, 17, was walking out after a court appearance linked to a drug bust. She saw him and asked for a ride home. He fell for her immediately.

One day in May, Oscar got a phone call from Regina’s sister, Margaret DeFrancisco 16. She said that Regina had been wrongfully arrested and needed $1000 for bail. Oscar agreed to give Margaret the money.

In reality, Regina had not been arrested, her other boyfriend had, and the money was used to spring him from lockup.

After getting the money, Regina went on a date with Oscar, where she promised to pay him the money back soon. A week later, Oscar asked Regina for the money she had promised, but she told him she was unable to get it. Instead, she proposed a three-way between the two and her sister Margaret. Oscar agreed.

Oscar Velazquez | via Oxygen

3 Ways to Death

On June 6, 2000, Oscar showed up at the DeFrancisco home to pick up the sisters for their manaja-twa. Margaret invited him to come in and wait while Regina finished getting ready upstairs.

Margaret led Oscar into the living room where she and another friend had been hanging out. When Regina finished, she came downstairs and called for Oscar to follow her to the basement.

Oscar wondering if they were going to stay in and skip dinner, focussed on Regina standing in front of him. He missed Margaret coming up behind him with a semi-automatic pistol. She placed it against the back of his head and pulled the trigger.

As Oscar crumpled to the floor and bled out, Margaret took his silver necklace and the cash from his wallet.

They had picked the exact spot to kill him in advance, covering the floor first with a trap then placing a sheet on top of it. If he noticed where Regina led him, he didn’t have a chance to react.

The sisters quickly started to wrap Oscar’s in the sheet and tarp and got it ready to move. They were able to get it outside and placed it in the trunk of Oscar’s Camaro.

They drove the car to a vacant lot. After dragging Oscar’s body out of the trunk, they covered it in nail polish remover and set him on fire.

The sisters initially tried to sell the car but were unable to find a buyer. Not wanting to get caught with the vehicle, they drove it a few miles away from where they left Oscar’s body and torched it.

Regina DeFrancisco | via Murderpedia

Unraveling the Crime

An anonymous caller reported the fire to 911, then after getting closer and finding the body, they called back and told the operator that there was also a body in the fire.

Only four days after the murder, Margaret and her mother went to the police to report Regina missing. The Chicago police came to the DeFrancisco home to look for clues to where Regina might have gone. That’s when they noticed something familiar.

Pillowcases found in Regina’s room matched the sheets Oscar Velazquez’s body was wrapped in after his murder.

As the police started to talk to Regina’s friends, they asked about her connection to Oscar and what they knew about his murder. The friend that had been at the sister’s home that night confessed to knowing about the murder and told investigators what the sisters had done.

Arrest warrants were issued for both Regina and Margaret DeFrancisco. Unfortunately, both sisters were then in the wind. Detectives would learn that the girls had connections to the street gang “The Latin Kings,” and they helped the girls move around and evade capture.

Margaret DeFrancisco | via Murderpedia

Out of Luck

In March of 2002, authorities received a tip that Margaret was with relatives in Roscoe, Illinois. In October, Regina was arrested in Dallas, Texas, for grand theft. When her prints were run, police found out she was wanted for murder in Illinois.

Both sisters claimed that the murder was in self-defense. That Oscar had attacked them, and they had to kill him to save their own lives.

Their story was contradicted by a friend, Veronica Garcia, who was there that night. She had made a plea deal with the prosecution to testify against the sisters for a more lenient sentence. Veronica was charged with concealment of a homicide, and because of her cooperation, she was given a lesser sentence.

In court, Veronica Garcia admitted that it was her boyfriend’s gun used by Margaret to kill Oscar. She said the sisters had asked to borrow it because they had planned a robbery. They never told her they planned to kill Oscar.

Other friends, Jessica Benitez, Luciana Macias, and Maria Constantino, also testified that the sisters had told them about the murder after the fact. The sisters never said anything about killing Oscar after he attacked them. Instead, they bragged about the murder and robbing his dead body.

Jessica Benitez testified that after Margaret had shot Oscar, she kicked him in the head, “so he could die faster.”

Maria Constantino had witnessed the sisters loading the body in the Camaro and said that Regina had said she had planned the whole thing out. She was luring Oscar to his death with the promise of sex.

“I have never from beginning to end come across a stranger murder case,” Judge James Schreier said in court. “A rather simple, amateurish plan but a professional execution. A single, mortal shot to the back of the unsuspecting victim’s head in her own basement.”

Regina DeFrancisco was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for a conviction of murder in the first-degree.

Margaret DeFranciso’s first trial ended in a mistrial. The second trial found her guilty of first-degree murder, and she was sentenced to forty-six years in prison.

Veronica Garcia was given five years for supplying the gun and not reporting the crime. She served her time and was released.