Ex-Officer Pleads No Contest to Murder

A former LAPD officer pleaded no contest Thursday to a second-degree murder charge in connection with the Aug. 24 shooting death of a former USC basketball standout.

Angela Shepard, 38, who entered the plea in a Whittier courthouse, faces 15 years to life in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 6 in Norwalk Superior Court.

Shepard was arrested at her home in unincorporated Whittier after Audrey Gomez’s body was discovered in the back seat of Gomez’s car at Murphy Ranch Park, in an affluent hillside neighborhood in Whittier.

Gomez had two gunshot wounds to the chest. A bloodhound led detectives from the car to Shepard’s home.

Shepard and Gomez worked together at the Price Mid-Term Residential Shelter in Los Angeles. Shepard, the program director, supervised Gomez.

Gomez, 28, was a New Jersey native and former top basketball player for Notre Dame and USC. In 1998, She was on the training camp roster of the Los Angeles Sparks franchise of the Women’s National Basketball Assn.

Shepard, who joined the LAPD in 1989, was fired in December 1995 after pleading no contest to a felony charge of making a terrorist threat against another officer. In that case, she was charged with five criminal counts, including battery and burglary.

She pleaded no contest to the felony terrorist charge and a misdemeanor charge of disobeying a court order.

A judge sentenced her to three years’ probation and ordered her to stay away from the officer and take anger management classes.