DRUG TURF DISPUTE A MOTIVE IN KILLING?

The lawyer for Chad MacDonald's mother calls it a possible scenario, but a
'red herring.'

Slain teen-ager Chad MacDonald might have angered Norwalk drug dealers by
selling methamphetamine on their turf, said a family lawyer Saturday after
concluding his review of police files.

Attorney Lloyd Charton, however, called the scenario a "red herring" and
insisted that MacDonald, 17, was tortured and strangled for working in the
past as a Brea police informant. On Friday, Charton said a 97-page Brea
police file showed that MacDonald's Hispanic killers called him "a
(expletive) narc" and made ethnic slurs as they beat the Yorba Linda teen.

"It is possible that Chad was (ticking) them off by being on their turf or
selling on their turf," Charton said Saturday. "Supposing it's a
combination of motives, who (cares)?"

Brea police officials have said the MacDonald, arrested in January for
possessing meth, was not working as an informant when he went to the
Norwalk drug house where he was strangled and his girlfriend raped and
shot. MacDonald's body was discovered March 3 in a Los Angeles alley. His
16-year-old girlfriend survived the attack.

Police dispute that MacDonald's one supervised drug buy at another location
had anything to do with his slaying.

Charton said that the day after MacDonald's body was found, Brea police
received a tip that he had met the same fate as another informant dumped in
the desert. Police Chief William Lentini said confidentiality laws prevent
him from discussing the "other informant" tip, but added: "We are not
investigating any homicide."

The probe into MacDonald's death is being conducted by Los Angeles County
sheriff's detectives.

Charton on Saturday said he learned from talking to MacDonald's mother and
friends that the teen-ager was trying during his final days to set up "one
last deal" for police.

In the week before his death, MacDonald stopped going home, even after his
mother, Cindy, paged him with a plea to come back and work out his
problems, Charton said.

The lawyer said the mother asked a Brea narcotics detective to contact
MacDonald, but the officer did not help.

"Chad was doing drugs, smoking speed," Charton said. "He told his friend,
'I have to do this one last deal so I can put all this behind me.'"