3 Get Life Terms in Informant’s Slaying

Two men and a woman convicted of murdering a Yorba Linda teenager and of trying to kill his girlfriend were sentenced to life without parole Friday.

Norwalk Superior Court Judge Dewey Falcone gave Jose Alfredo Ibarra, 21, four life terms plus 45 years; Florence Lela Noriega, 30, three life terms plus 51 years; and Michael Lucas Martinez, 23, two life terms plus 38 years.

The defendants, who smiled and chatted during the sentencing hearing, were convicted Oct. 18 of torturing and strangling 17-year-old Chad MacDonald, a onetime informant for the Brea Police Department.

Jurors deadlocked in the penalty phase of the trial over whether the defendants should receive the death penalty. When prosecutors decided not to retry the penalty phase, Falcone had no option other than imposing life sentences without parole. He made it clear Friday that he was frustrated.

“I see no remorse. I see smiling and smirking,” Falcone told the defendants. “I have sentenced each of you to the maximum sentence possible. You’re never going to get out. And if the death sentence could have been imposed, I would have imposed [it].”

Brea police enlisted MacDonald as an informant after he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine in January 1998. But prosecutors said he was no longer working for police when he was killed.

MacDonald and his girlfriend were abducted in March 1998 at a Norwalk home that authorities said was known for drug dealing. He was found dead in a South Los Angeles alley on March 3.

His girlfriend, then 16, was raped, beaten, shot and left for dead.