3 Ordered to Stand Trial in Slaying of Teenage Informant

Three people must stand trial in the slaying of a Yorba Linda teenager who had been working for police as a drug informant.

A Los Angeles Municipal Court judge Wednesday ordered Michael Lucas Martinez, 21, Florence Noriega, 29, and Jose Alfredo Ibarra, 19, all of Norwalk, to appear for arraignment on Sept. 23.

Chad MacDonald, 17, worked as an informant after being arrested for possession of methamphetamine in January. He was found tortured and strangled in a South Los Angeles alley on March 3, the same day his 17-year-old girlfriend was found in the Angeles National Forest. She had been raped and shot in the jaw.

The girlfriend, whose name has not been made public, testified at the preliminary hearing that their attackers had searched her and MacDonald for hidden recording devices. She also testified that the defendants said they wanted to teach MacDonald a lesson, according to court transcripts.

The prosecution is expected to decide within a month whether to seek the death penalty, said Forrest Latiner, Ibarra’s attorney.

Latiner said the defendants do not deny killing MacDonald but say they didn’t mean to do it. They wanted to teach him a lesson, Latiner said, because he was a “snitch.”

“Our view is that MacDonald was not killed as the result of commission of robbery, kidnap or rape,” Latiner said. “Basically, there was a feeling, a sense that he was a snitch or working for the police. I don’t think anyone really meant to kill.”

MacDonald’s mother recently filed a $10-million wrongful-death lawsuit against the cities of Brea and Yorba Linda and against Brea police, who serve both cities.

Lloyd Charton, an attorney for the MacDonald family, has contended that MacDonald’s role as a police informant led to his death.