A death row inmate involved in a financially motivated 2002 kidnap-murder of a businessman in Buena Park died Thursday.
Armando Macias, who was 50, was found unresponsive in his cell about 7 a.m. in the state prison in Sacramento, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said. Macias was pronounced dead at 8:01 a.m.
Macias was sentenced to death in September 2011 for his part in the Oct. 2, 2002, murder-for-hire of 44-year-old David Montemayor.
Montemayor’s sister, Debra Perna, orchestrated the scheme to kill her brother because she objected to the victim taking over their father’s Rancho Dominguez-based moving and storage business, InterFreight Transport. Perna’s recent attempt to have her murder conviction revoked under a new law was denied last week.
Macias was convicted April 21, 2011, of murder with a special circumstance allegation of carrying out the slaying for financial gain. He was also convicted of kidnapping for a robbery, attempted murder, two counts of criminal conspiracy, street terrorism, robbery, possession of a gun by a felon and being a gang member carrying a loaded gun in public.
The jury also found true sentence-enhancing allegations of shooting a gun causing death and the personal use of a deadly weapon.
Macias’ appeal of his death sentence was still pending, according to state supreme court records.
Perna’s assistant at the family business, Edelmira “Myra” Corona, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Perna asked Corona to contact a gang member friend, Anthony Navarro, to arrange for Montemayor’s murder, prosecutors said.
A reluctant Corona finally relented to the demands of Perna who was angered that her father, who was retiring, wanted his son to take over the family business, prosecutors said.
Navarro recruited fellow gang members Alberto Martinez, Gerardo Lopez and Macias, prosecutors said.
Perna couldn’t afford the job, but she told Navarro that he was welcome to what she said was $50,000 stored in coffee cans in David Montemayor’s garage and anything else they could take, prosecutors said. David Montemayor, however, did not have any money in his garage.
Perna gave Corona her brother’s home address, which was passed on to Navarro, who later lost it, prosecutors said. So the three decided to grab Montemayor at work and take him back to his home in Buena Park, prosecutors said.
Investigators suspect Montemayor never told his abductors exactly where he lived. He was shot in the head about a mile away as he tried to run, prosecutors said.
A witness chased after the killers and got a partial license plate number, which he relayed to a police officer on a motorcycle. Mize told investigators Macias was the shooter, prosecutors said.
The officer radioed in the partial plate and vehicle description, which led to a high-speed, televised morning rush-hour chase on the Santa Ana (5) and Riverside (91) freeways and Foothill (241) tollway before ending at Lincoln Avenue and Tustin Street in Orange, prosecutors said.
As Navarro, Macias, Martinez and Lopez awaited a court hearing in a holding cell in the North Justice Center in Fullerton on Feb. 28, 2003, Martinez and Macias used shanks to try to stab Navarro to death because they believed he had “ratted” them out to investigators, prosecutors said.
All the other co-defendants were convicted of murder and kidnapping charges, except for Corona, who made a deal to testify for the prosecution.
A jury convicted Martinez on May 6, 2010, and was sentenced to death in August 2010.
Navarro was convicted on Oct. 18, 2007, and sentenced to death on July 11, 2008.
Perna was convicted on Oct. 28, 2005, and sentenced in February 2006 to life in prison without parole.
Lopez was convicted on Dec. 14, 2005, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.