Gang member killed woman who witnessed murder, prosecutor says

A 28-year-old woman whose body was dumped from a bridge over Newport Bay two years ago was killed to keep her from talking about an unprovoked gang-related shooting she had just witnessed, according to prosecutors who started presenting their case Tuesday against the man accused of murdering her.

Irvin Tellez, a 27-year-old gang member and Garden Grove resident, is accused of shooting Nancy Hammour and, with the help of an accomplice, throwing her body off the bridge in a hasty attempt to hide what he had done, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Mendelson told jurors during opening statements in Orange County Superior Court.

Mendelson alleged that Tellez and another gang member, Jaime Rocha, were smoking methamphetamine in Hammour's rented room in Santa Ana early on the morning of Labor Day 2013 shortly before the violence began, according to Times Community News.

The three left the home and began driving through Hammour's neighborhood before stopping to talk to a woman none of them knew, according to Mendelson.

The woman mentioned the Alley Boys, a gang that claims territory abutting turf claimed by the Delhi gang, to which Rocha and Tellez were loyal, the prosecutor said.

"The mere hearing of the Alley Boys caused defendant Tellez to pull out a pistol and shoot her in the face," Mendelson said. The woman survived.

When Rocha, who was driving, sped away from the scene, Hammour became hysterical, according to Mendelson.

"She was screaming at the defendant Tellez," he said.

"He [Tellez] takes that same 9mm gun and he shoots her in the face," Mendelson said.

Prosecutors believe that Hammour survived the first shot, but as Rocha drove south on the 55 Freeway toward Newport Beach, Tellez fired again, quieting the gurgling sound she was making in the back seat, Mendelson said.

"He goes, 'Just die, Nancy. Just die,' and he squeezes off another round," Mendelson said.

As Rocha and Tellez debated how to dispose of the body and the car, the sun started coming up, Mendelson told jurors.

As they drove along East Coast Highway, prosecutors allege, Tellez told Rocha to pull over, and the two tossed Hammour's body over the railing of a bridge that spans Newport Bay.

But the body missed the water and was found that morning lying face down in a patch of iceplant 20 feet below the roadway, Mendelson said.

The weapon used in the shootings has not been found.

In addition to charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with those shootings, Tellez faces a count of assault with a firearm. He is alleged to have shot a rival gang member in the leg weeks earlier in Garden Grove.

He could be sentenced to up to life in prison if found guilty of murder.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, Rocha agreed to testify against Tellez and plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a 16-year prison sentence.

The woman in the first shooting also is expected to testify. She was able to talk to police only after more than a year of arduous recovery, Mendelson said.

Tellez's lawyer, Martin Heneghan, sought Tuesday to cast doubt on the prosecutors' version of events.

"It was a good story, but it was a story according to [Rocha]," he said.

In his brief opening statement, Heneghan asked why Rocha, 42, a longtime member of the Delhi gang, would act as a subservient accomplice to Tellez, as prosecutors described.

"I don't think it makes sense in the real world of gang culture that he would do what this young punk is telling him to," Heneghan said.