File Ties Slaying to Boy’s Police Work

A witness to the slaying of Chad MacDonald Jr. told police the Yorba Linda teen was killed because his assailants believed “he was narcing on them,” according to the MacDonald family attorney, who Friday reviewed a 97-page police investigation file.

But the lawyer, Lloyd Charton, declined to go into detail about the file’s contents or to make copies public. Charton said he would discuss the file further today after he has more time to digest its contents.

The file was ordered turned over to the family by Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Owen, acting on a request by Brea Police Chief William C. Lentini, who said the records would refute the MacDonald family’s claims that MacDonald was working as a police informant at the time of his slaying.

After going through the files Friday afternoon, Charton accused Brea police of not turning over the complete records, including case notes by the police officer monitoring MacDonald’s work as an informant.

“He’s got the whole file,” Lentini said. “We don’t have any notes on [MacDonald].”

Lentini criticized Charton for selectively citing the file’s contents.

“There were at least two other motives [for the killing] listed on that same page that Mr. Charton is quoting from,” Lentini said. “I challenge him to show you examples of exactly how many purchases Chad made for us. I challenge him to show you any connection between Brea police and that house in Norwalk or any of the suspects.”

Lentini repeated Friday that he believes he is forbidden from discussing the case publicly because the dead youth was 17. He called on Cindy MacDonald, the boy’s mother, to open the file for public inspection.

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“Thus far, the public has heard only Charton’s accusations,” Lentini said. “Now Mrs. MacDonald or her attorney are free to release the entire file. . . . The public could then understand the context of what happened in its entirety--let the facts speak for themselves.”

Charton declined, saying that to make the file public would be reprehensible because of the sensitive nature of some of the material. But Lentini disputed that, saying as police chief he was satisfied the sensitive material had been blacked out.

“I think that’s a convenient excuse for Mr. Charton,” Lentini said. “It’s been redacted. He knows that and I know that. If, in fact, he believes it’s not dark enough, then he certainly can take a pen and make that correction, if that was truly his motivation. But it’s not.”

Lentini said that given Charton’s decision to give reporters only small details from the file, he will return to Owen’s court next week and ask the judge to make the whole file public.

The MacDonald family has not filed a claim against Brea police over the youth’s death, but Charton has said that one is possible. The filing of a claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.

MacDonald and his 16-year-old girlfriend, whose name has not been released, were held captive and tortured at a reputed drug house in Norwalk for three days this month before MacDonald was strangled and the girlfriend raped, shot in the face and left for dead in Angeles National Forest. The girl survived.

Police have arrested Michael Martinez, 21, and Florence Noriega, 28, both of Norwalk, in connection with the killing. They are seeking a third suspect, Jose A. Ibarra, 19.

While reports of drug involvement began circulating shortly after MacDonald’s body was found, the case took an unexpected turn last weekend when Charton blamed Brea police for laying the groundwork that led the youth to the Norwalk house.

Charton said Brea police caught MacDonald with half an ounce of methamphetamine and a glass pipe during a traffic stop in Yorba Linda on Jan. 6. Charton said police told MacDonald and his mother that if the boy helped them make other arrests, they would not prosecute.

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But prosecutors pressed forward with the case, Charton said, leading MacDonald to make a court appearance Feb. 19. The case was delayed 30 days so MacDonald could continue working with police, Charton said.

“They were pressing him on the 19th to go out and make one more big buy,” Charton said.

That night, Charton said, MacDonald went to a north Orange County drug house and picked up a sample of methamphetamine. After he left the house, he was pulled over for a traffic violation. Police found the drugs and detained MacDonald, even though he told the arresting officer that he had picked them up as an informant and was about to call his police contact, Charton said.

Police told MacDonald he had not followed rules guiding informant actions and took him to the police station, where they called his mother, Charton said. Police subsequently dismissed her request that they talk with his handler, he said.

“They said that [MacDonald] was using drugs,” said Charton, who acknowledged that while MacDonald was making buys for police, he continued to purchase drugs for his own use.

At the time of that second arrest, MacDonald’s handler was on vacation. After he returned Feb. 25, the handler told MacDonald’s mother that police no longer were using MacDonald as an informant, Charton said. He said he did not know whether the mother passed that information on to her son before he made the fateful trip to Norwalk.

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While it was not known why MacDonald went to the house, Charton said the youth had helped police make two or three arrests and felt pressured to lead them to more significant drug suppliers.

Charton said the mother and son had discussed his actions, and Cindy MacDonald asked her son to back out of the arrangement, which he had entered with her knowledge.

“Cindy feels some responsibility,” Charton said. “You think she doesn’t regret what she allowed to occur? But she was coerced into it.”

Charton said MacDonald had made arrangements for her son to move to the East with other family members once his involvement in the drug cases was over.