KILLERS INFORMANT SENTENCED TO LIFE

NORWALK, Calif. (AP) -- Three people convicted of murdering a teen-age
drug informant and attempting to kill his girlfriend were sentenced to
life in prison without parole Friday.

The judge said he wished he could have sentenced them to
death.

"I see no remorse," Judge Dewey Falcone told the defendants, who
chatted and smiled during the hearing. "I see smiling and smirking."

Jose Ibarra, 21, Michael Martinez, 22, and Florence Noriega, 30, were
convicted Oct. 18 of murdering Chad MacDonald, 17, in 1998. They also
were convicted of raping and shooting his 16-year-old girlfriend, who
survived and testified.

The jury deadlocked on whether to recommend the death penalty and the
prosecution decided not to retry the penalty phase, eliminating the
possibility of capital punishment.

The MacDonald murder triggered debate on whether police should use
teen-agers as informants.

Police in Brea acknowledged that MacDonald was recruited as an
informant after he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, but
they said he was no longer working for them when he went to a reputed
drug house in Norwalk.

His beaten and strangled body was found in an alley. His girlfriend
was found wandering in Angeles National Forest after being shot in the
jaw and left for dead.