Second man held in killing of woman found under bridge
A second man has been charged in the killing of a 28-year-old Santa Ana woman whose body was found under the Newport Bay Bridge on Labor Day.
The Orange County district attorney’s office last week named Irvin Tellez, 25, a construction worker, as a co-defendant in the slaying of Nancy Hammour.
Hammour, who’d recently given birth to a second son, had been fatally shot, police said.
Tellez has also been charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting a woman in the face in Santa Ana hours before Hammour was killed.
Tellez is a Santa Ana gang member who also went by “Lil Speedy” and “Speedy.”
Days after Hammour’s body was found, prosecutors charged Jaime Prieto Rocha, 40, in her death.
Police say Rocha is a documented member of the same gang to which Tellez belongs. Rocha went by the name “Slimmer.”
Both are being held on $1-million bail.
Tellez has convictions going back to 2006, including car theft and possession of a controlled substance.
He is suspected of shooting a woman once in the face in the 2100 block of South Cedar Street outside an apartment complex about 5:30 a.m. on the same day Hammour’s body was found, said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department.
The unidentified woman had been in a coma at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Bertagna said, but she has since regained consciousness while remaining in critical condition.
Police say there is no indication that Hammour and the other victim knew each other, but they lived in the same neighborhood.
“Our detectives believe the two shootings are related in some way,” said Bertagna, who declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.
Passersby discovered Hammour’s body in Newport about three hours after Tellez allegedly shot the first woman in Santa Ana.
Meanwhile, Hammour was identified Tuesday in a sweeping indictment against more than 100 members or associates of a prison gang accused of running drugs, ordering beatings and keeping a list of people it wanted killed.
Hammour was allegedly part of a crew that distributed methamphetamine and heroin.
In February, she sold meth to a police informant and was recorded calling a higher-level dealer to order more drugs, according to the indictment.
Law enforcement officials allegedly recorded her making two more phone calls to order drugs from someone else who fell under the indictment.
Newport and Santa Ana police said her killing isn’t connected to the indictment.
“It doesn’t seem like that indictment has any bearing on our case,” said Jennifer Manzella, Newport police spokeswoman.
— Emily Foxhall contributed to this report.