DEATH PENALTY SOUGHT IN TEEN INFORMANT'S SLAYING

Courts: Trio May Face Execution In Chad Macdonald's Killing.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office will seek the death
penalty for three people accused of strangling a Yorba Linda youth in
a case that sparked debate about the use of minors as police
informants, a prosecutor announced Friday.

Deputy District Attorney Jeff Ramseyer announced the decision during a
hearing before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dewey Falcone
in Norwalk. Prosecutors declined to disclose the factors that led to
their decision.

Florence L. Noriega, 29, Michael L. Martinez, 21, and Jose A. Ibarra,
20, are charged with murder in the March 3 slaying of former police
informant Chad Allen MacDonald, whose body was dumped in a Los Angeles
alley.

MacDonald, 17, was slain after bringing his 17-year-old girlfriend to
a Norwalk house frequented by drug users. His girlfriend was raped,
shot in the face and abandoned in the Angeles National Forest. She
testified at a preliminary hearing that the trio accused MacDonald of
working for the police before killing him.

According to court documents, MacDonald agreed to work as an informant
for Brea police after his arrest for possessing methamphetamine for
sale. He made one undercover drug buy for Brea police, but was no
longer working as an informant at the time he was killed, records indicate.

Forrest Latiner, Ibarra's lawyer, has argued that the evidence shows
the three were trying to teach MacDonald "a lesson," that there was no
attempt to kill him. He said he was disappointed prosecutors chose to
seek the death penalty instead of life prison terms without parole.

"The death penalty should be reserved for the worst of the worst kinds
of cases," Latiner said. "This, though a very serious case, is not of
that sort and doesn't warrant the seeking of the death penalty for any
of the three accused.

But the prosecution's decision was praised by an attorney for the
MacDonald family.

"Society needs to be safe and it is imperative that perpetrators of
heinous crimes of this nature understand that their actions will not
be tolerate," attorney Lloyd Charton said.

Noriega could become only the 10th woman on California's death
row.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry