A 29-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole this week for orchestrating the murder of a friend found dead in a running car in a Fountain Valley neighborhood four years ago.
Mary Diedra Chavez was convicted by an Orange County Superior Court jury of first-degree murder and conspiracy in June. She didn’t fire the shots that killed Phia Marie Albanese, 26, of Long Beach near Slater Avenue and Tradewinds Street, but prosecutors argued she “ruthlessly and viciously conspired and planned and helped carry out the execution.”
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Prosecutors said Chavez masterminded Albanese’s murder on July 29, 2021, because she believed Albanese had told Chavez’s violent ex-boyfriend where she was staying.
Chavez reached out to Oliver Leon, a purported gang member from Los Angeles, Deputy District Attorney Nick Thomo told jurors.
She then lured Albanese to a Tustin motel where she was staying and persuaded Albanese to drive off with her and Leon, Thomo said. When they got to the neighborhood, Leon is accused of shooting Albanese in the back of the head while seated behind her.
Chavez’s public defender, Jessica Ann Sweeny, argued during the trial that Chavez did not intend for Albanese to be killed and that Leon “went rogue” and shot Albanese after shooting meth in the car.
The defense attorney told jurors that Chavez was moving between Airbnbs to avoid her ex-boyfriend who had repeatedly beaten her, including while she was pregnant.
Chavez’s new boyfriend at some point had shot and injured the ex-boyfriend, according to the attorneys, but the new boyfriend was taken into custody for carjacking, leaving Chavez alone to face any retaliation.
Albanese, who also had a boyfriend in jail, reached out to Chavez to hang out. Chavez had suspected Albanese told the ex-boyfriend where she was staying, prosecutors said, because he had showed up looking for her and trashed her car.
Sweeny argued that Chavez contacted Leon for protection from the ex-boyfriend — not to kill Albanese.
Residents in the Fountain Valley neighborhood heard several loud bangs and found Albanese in her car with the engine running on a front lawn in a cul-de-sac. One person turned the car off before police arrived to find Albanese with three gunshot wounds to the head.
Leon was charged with murder and conspiracy. His case has yet to go to trial, court records show.