A 29-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole this week for orchestrating the murder of a friend found dead in a running car in a Fountain Valley neighborhood four years ago.

Mary Diedra Chavez was convicted by an Orange County Superior Court jury of first-degree murder and conspiracy in June. She didn’t fire the shots that killed Phia Marie Albanese, 26, of Long Beach near Slater Avenue and Tradewinds Street, but prosecutors argued she “ruthlessly and viciously conspired and planned and helped carry out the execution.”

Prosecutors said Chavez mastermined Albanese’s murder on July 29, 2021, because she believed Albanese had told Chavez’s violent ex-boyfriend where she was staying.

Chavez reached out to Oliver Leon, a purported gang member fr

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