Nearly four years after residents of a Fountain Valley neighborhood discovered the body of a 26-year-old driver with gunshot wounds to the head slumped over in a still-running VW Jetta, a friend of the woman was convicted on Monday, June 9 of orchestrating the execution-style slaying.
An Orange County Superior Court jury found Mary Chavez guilty of special-circumstances murder and conspiracy for the July 19, 2021, killing of Phia Marie Albanese near Slater and Tradewinds streets.
Chavez figured Albanese had told Chavez’s violent ex-boyfriend where Chavez was staying, Deputy District Attorney Nick Thomo told jurors during her trial.
While Chavez didn’t fire the gunshots that killed Albanese, the prosecutor told jurors that Chavez “ruthlessly and viciously conspired and planned and helped carry out the execution,” and was “the one who put the whole thing together.”
The defense acknowledged that Chavez was in the car with Albanese and the gunman, but denied that she intended for Albanese to be killed.
The alleged gunman “went rogue,” the defense argued, and “things got out of control.”
At the time of the killing, Chavez was moving between Airbnb locations in order to avoid the ex-boyfriend who had repeatedly beaten her, including while she was pregnant, the defense attorney told jurors.
Chavez’s new boyfriend had shot and injured her ex-boyfriend, the prosecution said. But the new boyfriend was soon taken into custody for a carjacking, both attorneys said, leaving Chavez alone on the streets to face potential retaliation from the ex-boyfriend.
Albanese also had a boyfriend who was behind bars, and had reached out to Chavez to hang out. But after Chavez’s ex-boyfriend trashed her car and showed up looking for her, Chavez suspected that Albanese had told her ex-boyfriend about where she was staying.
Thomo alleged that Chavez, feeling betrayed, reached out to Oliver Leon, a purported gang member from Los Angeles.
Chavez lured Albanese to a Tustin motel where she was staying and persuaded Albanese to drive off with Chavez and Leon in Albanese’s vehicle. The prosecution and defense both told jurors that when the three reached the Fountain Valley neighborhood, Leon shot Albanese in the back of the head while seated behind her.
Residents heard several loud bangs and discovered Albanese in her vehicle with the engine running on a front lawn in a cul-de-sac. One person leaned into the Jetta to turn the vehicle off before officers arrived. Police found Albanese with three gunshot wounds in her head.
Assistant Public Defender Jessica Ann Sweeny told jurors that Chavez wanted Leon around to protect her from her ex-boyfriend, not to kill Albanese.
Chavez had reached out to Albanese the day of the killing in order to find out where her ex-boyfriend was staying so that she could avoid him, the defense said. But an angry and erratic Leon instead killed Albanese after shooting meth in the car, a defense attorney added.
Chavez is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on Aug. 1. She faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Leon is being tried separately. Prosecutors indicated in court papers they intend to pursue the death penalty against Leon. Depending on when it goes to trial, it could be the first death-penalty case to reach a jury under the current Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer.