Community Corner

Second Man Charged in Newport Bridge Homicide

By City News Service

A second man has been charged in the shooting death of a woman whose body was found Labor Day under the Bay Bridge in Newport Beach, according to court records obtained Friday.

Irvin Tellez, 25, was charged with the murder of 28-year-old Nancy Hammour of Santa Ana, and the attempted murder of a 31-year-old woman in Santa Ana on the same day Hammour's body was found.

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"Our detectives believe that the shooting of our victim as well as the shooting of Hammour are related in some way," Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

Jaime Prieto Rocha, 40, of Santa Ana, was earlier charged in Hammour's killing, but has so far not been charged in the shooting of the 31-year-old woman Sept. 2.

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It's unclear what motivated the shooting of the 31-year-old woman, whose name was not released, Bertagna said.

The victim received a phone call just before 5:30 a.m., Sept. 2, that led her out to the front of her apartment complex on the 2100 block of South Cedar Street, Bertagna said.

The victim's family told police she was going to meet someone out in front of her home, where she was shot in the face and taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Bertagna said.

Investigators did not expect her to survive, but she has been recovering, Bertagna said.

The motive for Hammour's killing has not been officially released, but it was revealed this week that the victim was a drug dealer who was indicted by a federal grand jury in a massive local, state and federal crackdown on Mexican Mafia gangs in Orange County dubbed "Operation Smokin' Aces."

The crackdown focused on the Evergreen-Cedar neighborhood, a particular hot spot for crime in Santa Ana, according to authorities. It's the same neighborhood where the 31-year-old woman was shot.

In the federal indictments unsealed this week, it is alleged that Hammour was caught in a wiretap ordering narcotics on Feb. 19, 2012, and on March 16, 2012. Hammour and another defendant also allegedly sold 13.73 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant on Feb. 17, 2012.

Rocha was being held without bail and Tellez was being held on $1 million bail, according to jail records. Both are scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 11.

Hammour had two children. Her 4-month-old son is in the custody of Orange County child protective services personnel, and a 12-year-old son is being raised by his grandmother, according to her sister.

Yara Hayak told ABC7 her sister "was going down the wrong road and she had lost her baby and she was trying to do all the classes and courses that was asked by the courts so she can get her baby back, and one of them was to have a stable place."

Hayak told the Orange County Register that her younger sister had struggled with drug problems since her father died six years ago.

According to Orange County court records, Hammour had two convictions for driving under the influence and a misdemeanor conviction for prostitution in 2008. She also pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance in January, and her probation was revoked July 19, according to court records.


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