Chad Macdonald

A Norwalk man and woman were arrested in Las Vegas during the weekend and booked for the kidnapping and slaying of a 17-year-old Yorba Linda youth and the rape and shooting of his girlfriend, officials said. The suspects, identified as Michael Martinez, 21, and Florence Noriega, 28, were arrested in a hotel room in downtown Las Vegas about 11 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. Investigators said they were close to arresting a third suspect in the case.

Chad MacDonald Jr., the Yorba Linda teenager who was tortured and killed last month, had worked as an informant for the Brea Police Department until 10 days before his body was found, according to documents released Wednesday. The documents, internal reports compiled by police and prosecutors, spell out for the first time MacDonald's relationship with Brea drug investigators.

After eight days of deliberations, jurors in the murder trial of a Yorba Linda teen police informant announced Friday they cannot decide on a punishment for his killers, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial in the case's penalty phase. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against the two men and one woman whom the jury last month convicted of torturing and killing Chad MacDonald because he worked as a drug informant for the Brea Police Department.

Three people must stand trial for the murder of a Yorba Linda teenager who had been working for police as a drug informant. A Los Angeles Municipal Court judge Wednesday ordered Michael Lucas Martinez, 21, Florence Noriega, 29, and Jose Alfredo Ibarra, 19, all of Norwalk, to appear for arraignment Sept. 23. Chad MacDonald, 17, had agreed to work as an informant after being arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine in January.

Even after a $231,000 settlement with City Manager Arthur C. Simonian on Tuesday that ended three high-profile lawsuits, Yorba Linda finds itself swamped with an unprecedented 22 lawsuits. The litigation facing the city of 60,000 residents has more than tripled its usual legal expenses to $1.6 million for fiscal year 1999-2000. The year's lawsuits range from injury claims and protests over a road-widening to landslides and a wrongful death suit.

Police said Thursday they have taken the unusual step of investigating details of the Chad MacDonald slaying in order to defend themselves against a possible wrongful death lawsuit by the slain teen's family, who claim he was tortured and killed because of his work as a police informant. Brea Police Chief William C. Lentini said they are investigating the family's allegations that police recklessly thrust the 17-year-old into harm's way by coercing him to tangle with violent drug dealers.

A fugitive task force on Saturday arrested a third suspect in the March slaying of Chad MacDonald Jr., the 17-year-old from Yorba Linda who had served as a Brea police informant. Jose Alfredo Ibarra, 19, was arrested on a murder warrant in the Norwalk area Saturday at 5:05 p.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Vincent Callier said. He was being held without bail at Los Angeles County Jail.

Investigators say they have found the body of Chad MacDonald Jr., the 17-year-old boyfriend of a girl who has told authorities that the pair were kidnapped and held hostage for three days before being left to die in Angeles National Forest. The body of MacDonald, who had been strangled, was discovered by Los Angeles Police Department officers in a South Los Angeles alley Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities narrowed their investigation Thursday into the kidnapping and slaying of a 17-year-old Yorba Linda boy and the rape of his girlfriend by combing her abandoned car for clues and focusing on the dilapidated stucco house where the teens were held hostage for three days before the killing. Chad MacDonald Jr.

The mother says Brea police gave her son this ultimatum: Snitch on drug dealers or go to jail. It was this relationship that Cindy MacDonald claims led to her 17-year-old son being killed in a Norwalk home known as a center of drug activity. Police acknowledge that they sometimes use youths as informants, but dispute the mother's account and hope to unseal confidential records later this week to prove their contention.