Trio Who Killed Teen Informant Get Life Terms

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

Los Angeles County 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.

A Norwalk jury deadlocked in the penalty phase of the trial over whether the defendants should be executed. When prosecutors decided not to retry the penalty phase, Falcone had no option but to impose 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 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 in the face and left for dead in the Angeles National Forest.

All three defendants were convicted of capital murder and other felony charges. Martinez and Ibarra were also convicted of raping the girl at the house in Norwalk.