Trial begins for woman accused of masterminding fatal shooting in Fountain Valley

A 29-year-old woman recruited a “killer with a smile” to gun down a friend in Fountain Valley she suspected of leaking her hiding place from an ex-boyfriend, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday, while the defendant’s attorney argued the shooter “went rogue” and said her client had nothing to do with it.

Mary Diedra Chavez is charged with murder with special circumstances of lying in wait for the victim and conspiracy to commit murder. Co-defendant Oliver Reynaldo Leon, who is facing the death penalty, is set to go on trial separately.

Chavez, known as Mumbles, had been convicted on drug dealing and forcing currency and was on probation when she was accused of “masterminding” the July 19, 2021, execution-style killing of 26-year-old Phia Marie Albanese, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Nick Thomo said in court papers.

In July of 2021, Chavez was “dating” Gustavo Alvarezmoreno, whose nickname was Clumsy, while he was in prison for carjacking, Thomo said.

Previously, she had been dating “J.J.” and was the getaway driver in an attack on her ex-boyfriend, Thomo said.
When J.J. survived the attack, she feared retaliation and began “bouncing around from Airbnb to Airbnb to hide from J.J.,” Thomo said in his opening statement of the trial.

Her friend, Albanese, was also dating someone behind bars, so the two agreed to hang out, Thomo said.

“Guess who shows up at her door? Thomo said. “J.J.”

Chavez figured Albanese told J.J. where to find the defendant, Thomo said. “Consumed by her rage over a friend’s betrayal,” she “invited” Leon and other associates to get together for a meeting to plan revenge, Thomo alleged.

“They all decided Phia has to die,” Thomo said.

Police were called at 6:11 p.m. July 19, 2021, to 10372 Amberwood Circle regarding a traffic collision and found the victim’s body in a Volkswagen Jetta, which was still in drive and on a front lawn, Thomo said. She was still buckled in the driver’s seat and sustained three gunshot wounds to the back of her head and one to her left hand, Thomo said.

Police found a receipt for the Residence Inn in Tustin in the vehicle and when they went to the room the victim rented they talked to Lisa Bergstrom, who told investigators Albanese had received a phone call alerting her that someone was vandalizing her car, Thomo said.

The prosecutor alleged this was part of the plan to “lure” the victim out of the hotel to kill her.

When the two went out to check the Jetta, Chavez drove up in a Mercedes Benz with Leon and another man, Thomo said.

Albanese left with Chavez and the others, Thomo said.

Video surveillance from the hotel showed the Mercedes entering the parking lot at 4:44 p.m. the day of the killing, Thomo said. Albanese’s vehicle left the hotel at 5:40 p.m. with Chavez in the front passenger seat, while one of her friends trailed in Chavez’s Mercedes, Thomo said.

“This is not a whodunnit,” Thomo said. “The shooter is Mr. Leon. The mastermind is the defendant.”

Chavez drove her friends back to Los Angeles and dropped them off after the fatal shooting, Thomo said.

Some of the evidence in the case will come from jailhouse phone calls, Thomo said. Chavez and her boyfriend discussed the hit on the victim, he alleged.

Leon “is the guy you bring around when you want someone killed,” Thomo said.

After the shooting, Chavez called her boyfriend in jail and “tried to be a sophisticated crook,” feigning surprise at Albanese’s killing, Thomo said.

“She pretends like she didn’t know what happened to Phia,” Thomo said. “She tries to set up her alibi, but [her boyfriend] doesn’t catch on,” so she changes the subject, Thomo said.

Leon is “a killer with a smile... Those are his words, not mine,” Thomo said.

At one point in a jailhouse call, Leon expressed disappointment that his photo wasn’t included in a newspaper account of the killing and referred to himself as a killer with a smile,” Thomo said.

Chavez’s attorney, Jessica Ann Sweeney of the Orange County public defender’s office, said Leon “went rogue,” and said the “situation was out of Mary’s control.”

Chavez “never wanted Oliver to kill Phia. She’s not guilty of murder or lying in wait,” Sweeney said.

“The truth is this was a chaotic, drug-fueled series of events,” Sweeney said. Chavez had survived childhood sexual abuse, and her ex-boyfriend had beaten her while she was pregnant, Sweeney said. At the time she was trying to pull her life back together, the defense attorney said.

Chavez was staying with Jennifer Jacobs in a rented Airbnb at the time, Sweeney said. Jacobs told investigators Chavez admitted directing the killing of the victim, Thomo said, but Sweeney told jurors that the witness had
a motive to lie as she cut a plea deal.

Chavez “was hiding from” her ex-boyfriend, Sweeney said.

She called Leon for protection, Sweeney said.

“Her main concern was getting out of that Airbnb alive,” Sweeney said.

Chavez even left behind a letter for her godmother in case she was killed, Sweeney said.

Chavez never told Leon to kill the victim, and “she did consider Phia her friend,” Sweeney said.

“She just wanted Oliver there for protection,” Sweeney said. “She didn’t want Oliver to hurt Phia. There was no plan. There was no agreement.”

Leon ingested methamphetamine before the shooting and “got angry and impatient,” Sweeney said.

Before the shooting, Leon told Chavez “to get out of the car,” Sweeney said.

Chavez “thought she would be next” to get killed, Sweeney said.

In the past, Chavez told Leon not to beat someone up, and he honored that, so the defendant thought he wouldn’t kill Albanese, Sweeney said.

“She thought she could trust him on his word and obviously she couldn’t,” Sweeney said. “Oliver promised not to do anything.”