Woman Accused of Paying Youths $100 to Kill Store Clerk : Burbank: Police say the shooting was arranged by Maria Serrato, who claimed to be involved with the man’s wife.

For $100, a 22-year-old woman hired two gang members who killed a grocery clerk so she could pursue a romantic infatuation with the clerk’s wife, authorities said Thursday.

“Every aspect of this case is extremely unusual for Burbank,” a city of 90,000 with a comparatively low homicide rate, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Collier said.

Jose Salazar, 37, was shot once in the head Aug. 22 as he emerged from his truck in front of his home in the 700 block of East Cedar Avenue in Burbank. His wife, Cecilia, who was with him, was unharmed.

Investigators now say the shooting was arranged by Maria Serrato of Los Angeles, who was arrested last week after a nearly yearlong investigation, Burbank Police Lt. Larry Koch said.

Serrato was being held at the Sybil Brand Institute, the county women’s jail, on suspicion of murder-for-hire, a capital offense. She is scheduled for arraignment in Burbank Municipal Court on July 22.

During the weekend, police arrested a 16-year-old youth described as a member of a downtown Los Angeles gang and are still looking for a second gang member. Collier said Serrato hired the two for a total of $100 to kill Salazar, who worked at a Pioneer Market in Echo Park.

Collier said Serrato and Cecilia Salazar met at a Vons supermarket in West Hollywood, where they both worked. Serrato told police they became lovers, but Cecilia Salazar denied being sexually involved with Serrato and maintains they were just friends, Collier said.

Cecilia Salazar is not a suspect, Koch and Collier said.

Serrato emerged as a prime suspect early in the investigation after she told police she had not liked Salazar and was involved in a relationship with his wife, Collier said.

The low price allegedly paid to kill Salazar has prompted investigators to closely guard many details of the case out of concern for witnesses’ safety. Collier and Koch both declined to disclose exactly how investigators were led to Serrato and the juvenile arrested after her.

“If for a price like that you can have somebody killed just because it’s someone you’re mad at, or are jealous of, what would it take to kill someone who’s a witness?” Koch asked.

Serrato’s attorney, Public Defender William McCallister, declined to comment.

Salazar’s fatal shooting was one of two slayings last year in Burbank. So far this year, the city has had three homicides, said Koch, the detectives’ commander.