Woman Sentenced in Failed Plot to Kill Husband
A Tustin woman received 25 years to life in prison Friday for hiring a man to kill her ex-husband, an El Toro Marine who survived the 1997 attack.
Debra Paredes was convicted of attempted murder June 16 for the shooting of Sgt. Johnny Rivera at a schoolyard Jan. 19, 1997.
The couple had been married nine years but divorced in 1996, and Paredes told Rivera she wanted to meet him and discuss their daughters, ages 9 and 11.
When Rivera got to the rendezvous at a local school, he encountered a man wearing a ski mask and wielding a .357-caliber Magnum revolver, prosecutor Raymond Armstrong said. The first shot missed, but the gunman hit Rivera five times before escaping, authorities said.
Rivera played dead, then ran for help. Police arrested the gunman, identified as Marc Garric Johnson of Jackson, Miss., shortly afterward when they spotted a suspicious man running from the school.
Johnson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.
Prosecutors said Paredes wanted to collect $200,000 from a life insurance policy on Rivera in which one of their daughters was named a beneficiary. But her attorneys alleged that Paredes had been abused by Rivera, and Johnson--the boyfriend of Paredes’ sister--was supposed to merely confront him.
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