2 Plead Guilty to Woman’s Death in Fight : Courts: The defendants had beaten the victim, who a doctor said died of a heart attack during the traffic dispute in La Habra.

A Whittier woman and a La Habra girl pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a woman who had a heart attack during a fight at a La Habra shopping center.

Rebecca Luker, 22, and Sara Ward, 17, face a maximum of three years in prison when they are sentenced Feb. 25 in Orange County Superior Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum said.

They were being held in the Orange County Jail--Luker on a $60,000 bail and Ward on a $50,000 bail. Ward was ordered to be tried as an adult last November.

Prosecutors earlier had dropped charges that the defendants, who are white, committed a racially motivated hate crime when they beat 26-year-old Tina Roxanne Rodriguez, a black mother of four.

The decision came after Dr. Joseph Hakla testified in November that Rodriguez was not beaten to death but had died of a heart attack caused by the stress of the fight. He said Rodriguez had suffered from Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition that made her susceptible to heart failure.

A third defendant in the case, John Richard Collins, 25, of El Monte also pleaded guilty Friday to being an accessory to a felony and receiving stolen property. He was sentenced to 16 months in state prison, Rosenblum said.

Luker’s lawyer, public defender Hector Chaparro, said his client had not expected the La Habra woman to die during the fight.

Luker pleaded guilty, he said, because she hopes the judge will see that she feels remorse and will show her leniency.

“I felt she had a very viable defense of self-defense in this matter,” Chaparro said. “We had developed a number of witnesses who would show that the victim actually instigated the fight and prolonged the fight. But (Luker) felt very badly about the whole incident. This wasn’t how she expected it to turn out. She deserves probation, not more time in jail.”

Rosenblum said the judge might be lenient because neither Luker nor Ward has a police record and they did not actually beat Rodriguez to death.

Ward’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

The incident occurred Sept. 2 as Rodriguez’s friend was pulling out of a parking place at La Habra and Beach boulevards. Their car was almost hit by a vehicle driven by Collins, La Habra Police Detective Michael Mitchell testified.

Collins’ car had been stolen from a dealership in August. He later told police he had bought it for $200 from the apparent thief, Mitchell said.

When Collins stopped to exit the parking lot, Rodriguez got out of her friend’s car, walked toward Collins and asked him what his problem was, according to police.

Luker and Ward then jumped out of Collins’ car and began beating Rodriguez, who suddenly collapsed, Mitchell testified. The women continued to beat her while Rodriguez was on the ground.

Collins, who had stayed in the car, drove off once Luker and Ward got back inside, police said.

Prosecutor Rosenblum said the case in the beginning was “over-reported” by police and the media and that Rodriguez only had a bruise over her right eyebrow from the fight.

Several witnesses had told police that the three defendants had yelled racial slurs as Rodriguez lay dying. But Rosenblum said other witnesses said no racial slurs were uttered by the defendants.