On a summer evening in 2021, residents near Slater Avenue in Fountain Valley head several loud bangs, and some discovered Phia Marie Albanese, 26, slumped over in a VW Jetta with the engine running on a front lawn in a cul-de-sac.
A black Mercedes-Benz was seen speeding off by some neighbors. One person leaned into the car to turn off the vehicle before officers arrived.
Albanese had three gunshot wounds in her head.
On Wednesday, May 14, a prosecutor told Orange County Superior Court jurors in Santa Ana that Mary Chavez, then 25, orchestrated the execution of her friend after deciding that Albanese told Chavez’s violent ex-boyfriend where she was staying.
Paperwork in the car pointed investigators to a Tustin motel and an alleged conspiracy to kill the Long Beach resident, which prosecutors say was carried out by accused gunman Oliver Leon, then 27.
During Wednesday’s opening statements for Chavez’s trial, both the prosecution and defense agreed that Leon — a purported gang member from Los Angeles who in a recorded call appeared to refer to himself as “a killer with a smile” — was the actual shooter. He will be tried separately later.
While Chavez is not accused of actually pulling the trigger that evening — just after 6 on July 19, 2021, near Slater and Tradewinds Street — she still faces murder and conspiracy charges.
“Mary Diedra Chavez ruthlessly and viciously conspired and planned and helped carry out the execution of Phia Albanese,” Deputy District Attorney Nick Thomo told jurors. “She was the one who put the whole thing together.”
Chavez’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Jessica Ann Sweeny, told jurors that Chavez never intended for Albanese to be killed. Instead, the defense attorney said, Leon “went rogue. … She was along for the ride and things got out of control with the ‘killer with a smile.’ What happened to Phia was out of Mary’s control.”
At the time, Chavez was moving between Airbnb locations to avoid an ex-boyfriend who had repeatedly beaten her, including while she was pregnant, Sweeny said.
Chavez’s new boyfriend had shot and injured her ex-boyfriend, the prosecution said. Her new boyfriend was taken into custody in connection to a carjacking, leaving Chavez on the streets to face potential retaliation from her ex-boyfriend, both attorneys said.
Albanese — who also had a boyfriend behind bars — had reached out to Chavez to hang out. But Chavez suspected that Albanese gave Chavez’s ex-boyfriend her location, the prosecution said, leading the ex-boyfriend to trash her car and show up looking for her.
According to the prosecutor, Chavez — feeling betrayed — reached out to Leon, who was “the guy you bring around when you want someone killed.”
Chavez lured Albanese out of a Tustin motel room she was staying in and persuaded Albanese to drive off with Chavez and Leon in Albanese’s vehicle, the prosecutor alleged. When they reached the Fountain Valley neighborhood, Leon shot Albanese in the back of the head while sitting in the seat behind her, both the prosecution and defense said.
Sweeny, the defense attorney, countered that Chavez had reached out to Leon for protection against her ex-boyfriend, not to kill Albanese.
The day of the killing, Sweeny said, Chavez was trying to find out from Albanese where her ex-boyfriend was staying in order to avoid him. An erratic and angry Leon instead killed Albanese after shooting meth in the car, the defense attorney added.
Prosecutors have indicated in court filings that they intend to pursue the death penalty against Leon for Albanese’s killing and not Chavez. Leon’s trial could end up being the first death penalty case to reach a jury under the current Orange County District Attorney, Todd Spitzer.