Darren Decker / Miss Universe Organization / AP
This May 23, 2005, file photo released by Miss Universe shows Monica Spear, Miss Venezuela 2005, posing for a portrait ahead of the Miss Universe competition in Bangkok, Thailand.
Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 | 8:50 p.m.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Three men who confessed to killing a former Miss Venezuela and her husband in a crime that shocked a nation increasingly accustomed to violence have each been sentenced to more than 20 years in jail.
The sentences were handed down Tuesday by a court in Valencia, near where Monica Spear and husband Thomas Henry Berry were slain in January when they resisted a robbery attempt while they were stranded on a lonely stretch of highway. Five more defendants remain on trial, Venezuela's Supreme Court said.
Oil-rich Venezuela has one of the world's highest homicide rates, and President Nicolas Maduro has said combatting violent crime is one of his top priorities.
Spear was a 2004 Miss Venezuela and popular soap opera actress.
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