Deborah Perna

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With a successful business and a loving family, one California man seemed to have it all.

Mom, dad, you know, little golden retriever, the white picket fence.

I loved to go into their house because they were always happy.

Until early morning gunshots shatter an American dream.

We do have a victim down, multiple gunshot wounds.

It tore a hole through all of his family.

As the investigation begins, detectives brace themselves for a wild ride.

There was a high-speed chase complete with helicopters, television cameras.

I've got the bad guys in front of me.

I can't let them get away.

They watched one of the men hanging out the window, flashing gang signs.

There was a lot of doubt, a lot of speculation.

This had to be a lot more than just a random murder.

She said, I need him taken care of.

There was like no emotion, just evil.

I know it's you now.

I'm coming after you.

I don't let killers go.

October 2nd, 2002 begins like any other Wednesday morning in Buena Park, California.

Buena Park is basically just a sleepy little

suburban town, you know, half hour from Los Angeles.

Around 7 a.m., Detective Greg Pelton arrives for his shift at the Buena Park Police Department and is instantly met with commotion.

And the call came out at 6.58.

I was just walking in the back door of the police department and I see detectives rolling out.

And I knew at that moment something happened.

One of the secretaries said, yeah, they had a shooting down on Pinion Street.

I said, okay, so I grabbed my stuff and I went out though.

Detective Pelton's partner, Sean Morgan, also responds to the call.

call.

It's a shots-fired call.

In a neighborhood, we don't have those kind of problems.

My gut feeling telling me it was going to be a lot more than that, I immediately literally ran out of the building to my car and started in that direction.

Detective Pelton beats his partner to the scene.

When I pulled up, I saw a white foot expedition.

Driver's door was open and it was parked in the middle of the road.

And off to

my right, over on the sidewalk, I see a man laying face down.

Where the body was discovered was not your typical neighborhood where you would find a dead body next to a car.

Those are usually the quietest parts of Orange County.

As Detective Pelton takes in the scene, a radio transmission provides more information about the morning's events.

A patrol officer has just made contact with an eyewitness to the crime.

The witness saw one of our motor officers and let him know what he had just witnessed.

He goes, I just witnessed the shooting.

He was out collecting recyclables, cans, and stuff.

He saw the two vehicles pull up.

In broad daylight, a man bolted out of a vehicle and was, you know, running away.

And suddenly one of the people inside the car got out and shot him.

The witness tells the patrol officer that when the suspects fled the scene, he hopped in his own car and began a pursuit.

He's following them.

He gave us the direction travel they went and everything.

He got a partial play in the vehicle description.

The eyewitness report catches the attention of Detective Morgan, who immediately heads in their direction.

I figured I was close enough.

I might run right into him.

We're getting updates that we do have a victim down, multiple gunshot wounds.

It is a homicide.

back at the crime scene detective pelton works to id the deceased the victim is a man with his right arm partially amputated appearing to be in his 40s he didn't have a wallet so initially they couldn't identify him i'm walking the crime scene and looking i'm saying okay we got bullet casings in the street we got bullet holes and in the fence i got this vehicle here is it somehow related to my dead guy i don't know because there was a vehicle left in the middle of the street They ran that plate and were able to get the owner's information.

They were able to speak to his wife Susan, who was eventually able to identify who he was.

The victim is 44-year-old David Montenayer.

The biggest identification point we had was her husband lost his right arm.

And so he only had one arm, and our victim only had one arm.

She identified, so at that point in time, they make the death notification.

Born on May 9th, 1958, David Montemayer was the second of four children.

He grew up in Galveston, Texas, where he and his siblings, Deborah, Darren, and Michael, were raised to value family and hard work.

They got along.

I mean, they came from a loving household and all the dynamics there for, you know, a good childhood.

The family's life in Texas came with some woes as well, especially for David, who suffered a serious injury at a young age.

He was helping working on some farm equipment back in the day, and he stuck his hand in some gear and it just yanked it off.

In the early 80s, the Montemayer family moved to Southern California to cultivate a new endeavor, interfreight transport.

David's father, Pete, instilled an entrepreneurial spirit in his kids by involving them in the family business.

They started in LA right off the 91 and they were a small warehouse and a few trucks and then as they were able to gain more drivers like owner operators, they expanded.

All of them were involved.

So it was really nice because Darren was a driver.

My mom worked in the office and helped out in the beginning and then Dave helped out with dispatching and logistics.

Deborah, the oldest Montemayer child, was the first to leave the nest.

She got got married and started a family.

My mom married my biological father 83, 84, and then they had me.

And then 18 months later, they had my brothers.

So she was married for about a year after that, and then they divorced, and then she raised us from then on by herself.

We didn't have any contact with my father at all throughout our lives.

He was never around.

So my grandpa always took that role.

of a father.

She was a single mom.

She needed steady income and her family provided that stability that she really needed.

She worked hard.

She was always very much ingrained in our sports.

She was always a team mom.

We played football.

We played baseball.

We used to go dirt biking all the time.

We'd travel.

We had a great life.

Deborah's younger brother, David, was also doing quite well for himself.

In 1989, he married a woman named Susan, and together they had three daughters.

David made a pretty good salary, and he owned a a home in Orange County, which was pretty expensive even in Buena Park.

Every time I went to their house, I always remember feeling like that full circumference of happiness.

Mom, dad, you know, the little golden retriever, the white picket fence.

I loved to go into their house because they were always happy.

David played a large role at the family trucking business where he helped his father manage operations.

My grandpa owned the company outright, and at one point he wanted to step back and give it to his kids.

The original intention of the father, as I understood it, was it was going to be a co-leadership role for Deborah and her brother.

And a lot of things in life, what happens is everybody settles into their respective roles.

And David settled into a leadership role.

Dave ran the show, and that was totally fine with my mom.

There was nobody else who could run the show like Dave, except for my grandpa, and he wanted out.

Dave did a great job.

While David kept operations running smoothly, Deborah took the lead on the administrative side.

But after sticking with the family business for five years, Deborah grew tired of barely making ends meet.

All she would have to do is ask my grandfather and he would just write her a check.

But she never utilized that.

Handouts weren't really something that she ever wanted.

At the end of the day, she wasn't making anything more than her whatever office rate was, so she left.

Without Deborah, the family business suffered, and her father begged her to return.

92, she peaced out, 96, she came back.

It was the draw that her father needed her, and my mom came back.

Once Deborah Perna settled back into the family business, things were going quite well for the Montemayers.

Until October 2nd, 2002, when 44-year-old David Montemayer is gunned down in his own neighborhood.

He was only killed about a mile from his home.

Was it somebody that he knew?

Was it somebody at random?

Was it a carjacking?

Was it just a street robbery?

We don't know at this point.

As a team of officers from Buena Park PD sorts through clues left behind at the crime scene, detective Sean Morgan is on the hunt for a Chevrolet Blazer.

It's imperative to catch them.

They're a danger to the public because they just killed somebody.

Who knows what else they're going to do?

I get up on the freeway, and that's when I find them.

With the suspected killers in sight, Detective Morgan fires up the siren in his unmarked car.

Once they took off at a high rate of speed, now it's a dangerous situation.

I've got to let the public know that something's going on so they know to get out of the way, hopefully, and let the bad guys know I know it's you now.

I'm coming after you.

Coming up, a high-speed chase puts a community on edge.

Helicopters, television cameras, the whole nine-yards.

As the car was slowing down, weapons started being tossed out.

He's not listening to commands.

We think he's armed.

Are we going to be able to take them into custody, or are they going to shoot it out?

October 2nd, 2002, Buena Park, California.

Detective Sean Morgan is behind the wheel of his unmarked police car and inching closer to a vehicle that had reportedly fled the location where David Montemayer was shot to death.

I immediately see three suspects inside the vehicle.

They started turning around and talking and looking back in my direction.

After this commotion in the vehicle, they pulled out onto the shoulder and took off at a high rate of speed.

As Detective Morgan calls for backup, the pursuit becomes breaking news in the local media.

There was a high-speed chase complete with helicopters, television cameras, the whole nine yards.

You have the helicopters overhead filming it live and the commentators are telling you how dangerous this is because so many people are in arm's way.

So that really, you know, increased the interest in this chase.

I'm requesting assistance because

I'm the only unit in in the pursuit of three armed suspects that already now has been confirmed as a homicide.

An Anaheim police unit was able to get into the pursuit.

He takes over the initial part of the pursuit and eventually his motor blew and he had to pull out of the pursuit so I'm now the lone vehicle in the pursuit again.

They watched one of the men hanging out the window flashing gang signs.

And as the car was slowing down, weapons started being tossed out.

They realized that they were dealing with gang members.

They also saw the suspects throwing two guns out the window.

Did they have more?

They didn't know.

It really changed the dynamic as that pursuit continued.

These guys aren't going away.

It's just, are we going to be able to take them into custody or are they going to shoot it out?

Seeing how they've already thrown their guns out the window, it's just a matter of time.

Motor suspects don't get away in pursuits.

Suddenly, the suspect vehicle starts to lose steam.

The engine starts to smoke and they are noticeably slowing down.

They can't maintain the high speeds they had, so they exit the freeway.

Another, one of our black and whites, catches up.

He takes over the primary part of the pursuit as a marked unit.

He initiates the pit maneuver, spins the vehicle out of control.

It goes in reverse when it, after it spins, off to the right side and crashes into a telephone pole and a rock wall.

After that happened, one of the people inside the car got out and it appeared he was holding holding something.

He's running to a park where kids are playing at.

We know people are there.

We can see him.

We can't let him get there.

He's not listening to commands.

We think he's armed.

An officer-involved shooting takes place.

He's eventually hit in the shoulder and goes down.

The suspect who had been shot because he had something in his hand, it turned out to be a phone.

Police swarm the injured suspect and seize the phone.

Officers also secure the the two men still in the vehicle.

Once they saw their friend, I think they realized that they had no way out.

They stayed and followed the officer's orders.

The suspect who was shot, he was taken to the hospital and treated for his injuries.

They were all booked at Buana Park Police Department.

One of the suspects had the victims, David Montemeyer's driver's license in his possession, which kind of solidified the fact that we had the right people.

As the three suspects are booked, booked, across town, David Montemayer's grieving family members gather at the perimeter of a bustling crime scene.

When I first got there, it was early.

I mean, they hadn't even covered him up.

I was just mortified that, you know, like, that's my uncle.

That took a toll on me at that level.

Detective Greg Pelton takes the lead at the crime scene.

I need to secure my scene, secure witnesses, and start the process of processing the scene, getting the coroner out there.

We got bullet casings in the street.

We got bullet holes in the fence.

I had detectives canvassing the neighborhood, and we had witnesses that had been calling it in.

Witnesses around the neighborhood provide investigators with details of what occurred earlier that morning.

They said that they saw one gentleman.

He was being chased by three guys.

They were arguing.

David Montemayor tried to get away again as he ran.

They had all pulled weapons out and started firing at him until he was hit and went down.

And then somebody fired a final shot into him.

After speaking with several witnesses, detectives know how David was killed, but they still don't know why he became the target of such a ruthless attack.

Not only was it just a homicide, but these are gang members.

So what's the connection?

We're still trying to get information.

Family members at the scene informed detectives that David spent his mornings working at his family's business in Compton.

Detective Martinez went to the family business and started interviewing employees there, try to figure out what, if anything, he could find out.

He talked to the employees and found out that when they arrived at Wook, you know, David was usually the first person to open the gates, opened up the business.

And at this time, they arrived at work and the gates are open, but David's car is gone.

He's nowhere to be found.

So they're just like, well, what's going on?

So Detective Martinez says, well, David's been murdered.

Everybody seemed shocked that this had happened.

No one knew why somebody would shoot their boss.

The most distraught is the victim's sister, Deborah Perna, who works at the company as well.

Deborah, the office manager, told police that she had no idea what happened, why it happened.

She gave police a list of other employees.

As investigators question the list of employees, they begin to pick up on a collective suspicion of Deborah's secretary, 25-year-old Edelmira Corona.

A normal question that's going to be asked of anybody in the workplace is, have you seen anybody suspicious hanging around?

There were a number of people that pointed to some visitors that Elmira had had that were sketchy.

People at the business were like, you know, we have a temporary employee here, Ed Emira Corona,

who, at her desk, she had pictures of savvy-looking gangsters.

She had a picture of her fiancé who's a gang member.

The idea that we have this employee who has

relationships with members of gangs and the fact that you just arrested three gang members for this killing, it obviously raises a big red flag and makes that person a definite person of interest.

But when detectives speak to Edel Myra, she gives them no reason to believe she'd been involved.

Myra was somebody who was very temporary.

I mean, she was in there for a few months.

Maybe she was quiet.

She just did her thing.

She just helped out with paperwork, minded her own business.

She had worked there before and she had recently come back, but nothing else relevant.

Knowing that David made it to work that morning, investigators can begin piecing together a timeline leading up to his murder.

David had made it to work, opened the gates, had turned off the alarm system before he had been attacked.

Detectives suspect the men ambushed David and demanded he lead them to his house.

We find another witness, happens to be one of David's neighbors.

Well, he goes, I saw David drive past this house and he sees another vehicle.

We later learned that that was the suspect vehicle.

He goes, I thought that was weird because David's usually at work.

Despite the fact that his life was in grave danger, David's actions in his final moments suggest he sacrificed himself in order to save his family.

They obviously didn't do their homework because coming back to his house, he knew his wife Susan and the kids were still there because she hadn't left to take them to school.

He's like, if I take them there, they're going to kill my whole family.

So he drove down to the next res track and pulled in, and then he bailed out of the truck.

And then that's where that confrontation took place.

David was a hero.

He saved his family.

But how did David end up in this position in the first place?

Why did they have my uncle?

We had no family ties, any gangs.

Everybody was decent, hard-working family people that we had known for a number of years.

Rumors around the business suggest a possible motive.

The The running theme was at the business.

People used to joke about David having $50,000 in a coffee can at his house.

And we're lost like $50,000.

And that's what everyone was telling us.

Coming up, detectives must consider the possibility that David had a dark side.

Being a trucking business, maybe he was moving materials for him, and maybe that was a deal that had gone bad.

But are they prepared for what they'll find along the way?

He's driving like 100 miles an hour.

We're calling the Highway Patrol trying to get them to stop him.

They pull him over with guns drawn because this was dangerous criminal.

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After hearing rumors that murder victim David Montemayer kept tens of thousands of dollars hidden in his home, Buena Buena Park detectives begin developing theories to explain how the alleged money might connect David to the three gang members who killed him.

Being a trucking business, one of the thought processes was that maybe he was moving materials for him, whether it be stolen materials or narcotics of some sort, and maybe that was a deal that had gone bad.

To test their theory, detectives turned to the gang members in custody.

When we interviewed the three suspects trying to get details of the the crime, they all refused to talk to us and they didn't give us any information.

Later at the jail, we got more information on them, who they are, their tattoos, and we were able to identify they were gang members out of Bacoima, which is over an hour away.

Two of the shooters were adults and then the one juvenile, I believe he was 17 at the time of the crime.

The three men are identified as 26-year-old Armando Macias, 24-year-old Alberto Martinez, and 17-year-old Gerardo Lopez.

The gang is one of the top five members of the Mexican Mafia.

My partner and I were just like, how did these guys from an LA gang 40 miles away end up with our victim in our city?

Why would this local person be shot by somebody that far away?

There had to be more to it than just a random killing.

We started looking into the Mexican mafia aspect of it.

Was he doing something illegal?

Was he running drugs for the Mexican mafia?

Was he in debt to them?

As we got more and more information, we had nothing to solidify that he was moving any kind of narcotics or stolen property.

With that, we figured somebody had to have asked them to do this.

But if David was the target of a hit, who ordered it and why?

Luckily, police have some evidence to work with.

Cell phones seized from the three suspects after the high-speed chase.

I was able to write a search warrant, and through that process, I was able to learn that all these cell phones were purchased together by one person living in San Diego.

When they came back, registered some other guy, we tracked that guy down.

We say, hey, these phones are registered to you.

He goes, yep, they are.

He says he had bought the phones for Anthony Navarro.

He said Anthony Navarro is like, get these phones.

And I did exactly what Ned told me to do.

He was so afraid of Anthony Navarro.

So we're like, who and what part did he play in this?

When the police investigated, well, it turns out Anthony Navarro was the head of a local gang.

I was able to see that one of the suspects was calling and talking to Navarro.

So now we know he's got to be involved in this.

So we need to talk to him.

Detectives track down an address for Anthony Navarro in the LA neighborhood of Sun Valley, 40 miles north of Buena Park.

We found out where he was living, conducted a search warrant on that location.

That's when we found the gang graffiti all spray-painted in the garage with their names of our killers.

Their nicknames are all listed in there.

So that started to put more things together.

Navarro wasn't there when we served that search warrant.

His wife, Bridget, she didn't know where he was.

With Anthony nowhere to be be found, detectives returned to Buena Park and do some digging.

We had people looking for him.

We ran our checks on him.

We found out that he had been an informant for a number of different agencies.

He does crime, and then as soon as he's about to get caught, he goes to his handlers, LAPD, ATF, and Anthony kept himself out of jail, but was still profiting.

We had talked to those different handlers, trying to get more background on him.

Where can we find him at?

Nobody was able to locate him.

After several days' effort of trying to locate Navarro, detectives Pelton and Morgan are eager to make some headway in the case.

So about two weeks into the investigation, Greg and I were tossing ideas around and were like, let's just go up there.

We're antsy.

We got to do something.

So we drove all the way to Canyon Country to his house, which is over an hour away.

We pulled up there and parked.

in an unmarked car.

And we're sitting there watching it.

There's a pickup truck in front of the single garage.

We already know this vehicle.

When we saw the search woman, it was there as well.

Belongs to his wife.

We weren't there very long either.

We saw Bridget come out and get in the pickup truck and she backs out of the driveway.

We're like, okay, maybe she's going to him.

We might have to follow her.

Well, then the garage door opens and a car starts backing out.

We don't know who's in that car.

It could be Navarro.

We got to go follow him.

Once they get out of sight, we take off.

It's very difficult to follow a vehicle when you're the only vehicle.

We're having to lay back, stay behind semi-trucks, peek out, and then you know, play catch-up as he's driving.

And he's driving like 100 miles an hour.

They don't know we're there.

So it's like, where are they going in such a hurry?

We're calling the Highway Patrol trying to get them to stop him if they can get a unit in the area.

But as he's getting on the phone, trying to get a hold of the CHP, they get off and pull into a 7-Eleven parking lot.

I was just like, let's just jam him now.

We just come straight in at him and take him down to gunpoint.

They pull him over with guns drawn because this was a dangerous criminal.

The detectives pat down Anthony Navarro and his passenger, Daniel Chidez, and confirm neither man is armed.

Anthony consents to a search of his car.

I start searching the car.

They're going to glove box.

Shoved full of papers.

I'm like, well, I got to be thorough.

Page by page, I'm pulling these out one at a time, looking at these.

I immediately recognized David Montemayor's home address

and his phone number written on this piece of paper and another thing in Spanish, as one of the deputies from the local area came to assist us, was able to let me know that that said one arm.

As soon as I saw that note, to me, that was like a smoking gun.

The stationery with David's address also matches paper used in his office, indicating that the hit might have come from within.

As detectives were searching the car, they came across a photo of an inner freight employee named Edelmira Corona.

He has the person's address and a photo of somebody who works in the same office.

There was obviously a strong connection there for the investigators.

Though these two items of evidence are compelling, they aren't quite enough to warrant an arrest.

But Detective Morgan doesn't have to look much longer to find something that does.

I go back to searching the car, and in the vent duct on the inside of the center console, there's a gun.

A loaded gun.

Anthony wasn't worried about the homicide.

Anthony was worried about the fact that we found a loaded gun in his car.

Because Anthony is a convicted felon.

Well, now we have good reason to take him to jail.

Detectives Pelton and Morgan take Anthony Navarro and his passenger, Daniel Chidez, into custody.

The investigators hope nabbing Navarro is the key to solving their case.

Coming up, will a career felon outsmart law enforcement?

He's been able to talk his way out of things for a long time.

And a desperate confession leads investigators to a mastermind.

She realized the gig was up.

She's a cold, cold woman.

More than two weeks after the tragic shooting death of David Montemayer, detectives feel they're getting close to solving his murder.

After finding evidence in Anthony Navarro's car connecting him to the crime, police sit down with the known gang leader.

I can tell already Anthony's going to want to talk to me.

Anthony's a taco.

One of the smartest crooks I've ever arrested.

We were asked about David Montemeyo.

Don't know him.

How about Edomira Corona?

Never heard of him.

But in a day planned in the backseat of his car, Sean found a picture of Edomira Corona.

I'm just like, thought you didn't know him.

Backed into a corner, Anthony Navarro finally breaks, revealing a crucial piece of information.

Navarro told the police that, hey, we did this at the request of Edelmira.

Based on the information that Anthony gave me during his interview, I got to get Corona back in here.

After the interview concludes, Navarro and his passenger, Daniel Chidez, are booked.

Investigators now turn to their new lead, Edelmira Corona.

When Detective Martinez went to follow up to try to get more information as we were working the case, she was not available to be spoken to.

She wasn't responding to calls or returning calls.

I send guys out to find Edelmeyer Corona.

Can't find her.

I said, well, sit on her house.

Check the ports of entries, make sure that she's not out of the country.

They sit on her house, she shows up, and they say, hey, you know, Detective Corona, I'd like to talk to you again.

Can you come in?

They give her a ride to the station on her own free will.

Edomeyer's interrogation was pretty standard from the standpoint.

There were the initial denials.

As is normally the case in an investigation, they slow-played it.

Probably an

hour and a half into it.

The interview changed when I took out this note that we found in Anthony's vehicle.

I put it down on the table in front of Fulhan.

What can you tell me about this?

And she looks down at it, looks up at me, says, I didn't write that.

She wanted to leave.

He's like, well, you're not, you can't leave because we know something's up.

So at that point, she was basically detained.

She was Mirandized at that point because she's now not free to leave.

Ultimately, she realized the gig was up.

The officers pointed out to her that you've painted yourself in this corner and the only way out is to tell the truth.

I was on the cusp of breaking my case.

I need to know who wrote this note.

She goes, Deborah Pruna.

Could David's own sister really be involved in his murder?

Detectives press Edelmira for more information.

Corona goes in to explain the story about how she went to work for the trucking company as a temporary employee.

She built a relationship with Deborah Crona.

And Deborah was always complaining about David stealing from the company.

He's going to ruin this place, blah, blah, blah.

And she said, I need David to disappear.

I need him taken care of.

Corona was just like, I can't really help you out with that.

She goes, no, but you know people who can.

She gave them the story that Deborah had solicited the murder of her brother through Edelmira's reputed gang boyfriend and his friends, who Deborah had seen around the trucking company.

She started to tell us that, you know, her and Deborah were partied.

Navarro was the person that supplied them the drugs.

Deborah had asked her, what about Navarro who comes and brings our drugs?

He looks like a gang member.

Can he help you out?

Corona goes in to explain this joy.

Corona.

So it's like, well, I can ask him, but hey, they're not going to do this for free.

So

Debbie goes on.

Oh, David's been stealing from the company.

He's got $50,000 cash at his house, hidden in a coffee can.

They can take what they want.

He's just got to go away.

Corona was like, okay, I'll run it by Anthony.

Corona had Anthony at $50,000.

Anthony was like, I'm your guy.

As a result of of that confession to police, they asked Edelmira if she was willing to cooperate with them, and she did.

Edelmira then did a cold call to Deborah Perna, which was recorded by the police.

When she calls Debra and starts asking her about it, they found a note.

Anthony's been arrested.

What do I say?

What do I do?

Shut up.

Don't talk to me.

Keep quiet.

Don't say anything.

I'm not discussing this over the phone.

I mean, she just put the nails into her coffin with that phone call.

Following the incriminating phone call, police immediately go to Deborah Perna's home.

It was like 1, 1.30 in the morning, and I knock on the door, and she answers the door.

She's like, what's going on?

I said, oh, you're under arrest for the murder of your brother.

And she's like, what?

And I throw it handcuffs.

They took her in for questioning.

She denied knowing anything about it until they played the recording,

which caused her to break down.

Debbie was all freaked out.

I mean, so much so that she peed her pants during the interview.

She wasn't upset about the murder of her brother.

She was upset with the fact that she was being charged with the murder of her brother.

Watching her get interviewed by Greg, listening to the conversation,

she's a cold, cold woman.

There was like no emotion, just evil towards her brother.

Deborah claims it wasn't her intention to have her brother killed.

There was a half-hearted effort on Deborah's part, as I remember, to say, well, I just wanted him hurt.

I didn't want him killed.

So she's pleading to a lesser offense, thinking it's taking her away from the homicide.

But it's a felony crime committed in the state of California.

And if a death occurs, no matter who it is involved in a crime, then that's the murder rule.

You're guilty of murder.

On October 19th, just over two weeks after David Montemayer was gunned down on the street, his sister Deborah is arrested for planning the murder.

Her family is stunned.

We were adamant on the fact that they were wrong, and they wouldn't tell us anything.

They were just telling us that she wasn't going to go anywhere.

And they gave her a no-bond.

Coming up, Deborah's fate hangs in the balance.

There was a lot of doubt, a lot of speculation.

There's a little bit of anxiety because I don't let kills go.

I mean, it was devastating.

I just got up and I walked out.

Nearly three years after the murder of David Montemayer, the alleged mastermind behind the plot, Deborah Perna, heads to trial.

The idea that this family, these siblings, would have such bad blood between them, that they would actually carry out a murder, is pretty unthinkable.

In the years leading up to her day in court, support from Deborah's oldest son never wavered.

I went to the main every week, you know, took care of her financially, visited her, you know, comforted her.

There was a lot of doubt, a lot of speculation.

There's no way she's involved.

That's not how we get down.

So, yeah, all I know is I'm back in my mom because, you know, her character, number one, number two, she's my mom.

The trial begins in October of 2005.

Prosecutors present the case as a sibling rivalry and professional power struggle taken too far.

And the running theme was that Debbie Pona and David Montemano didn't get along.

Everyone witnessed Debbie yelling and screaming at David.

They didn't hide their animosity towards one another.

They were unable to differentiate the personal from the professional.

The lines were blurred and the trucking company was, as a result of that discord, barely surviving.

When Deborah and David's father announced he wanted to retire, things between the siblings heated up.

Deborah finds out that dad's going to sign the business over to David.

And Deborah's just like, you can't do that.

Sign it over to both of us, but don't sign it over to David.

Deborah thought David was squandering money, and she thought there was going to be nothing for her to take care of her and her children.

But investigators were unable to find any evidence proving Deborah's suspicions correct.

David's wife, Susan, took care of the books, so she was forthright in presenting that information.

And as it was determined, going through that, he wasn't squandering money.

The company had been taking care of the whole family.

When Deborah's defense attorney steps up to bat, he tries to divert the blame from his client to her gang-affiliated secretary.

My argument was that Deborah was a low-hanging fruit because she was the person everybody knew didn't like David because their battles were the most public, at least throughout the company.

The summary of my overall strategy was that O'Mira is full of sh ⁇ .

She had motive to kill David because of the money.

But when prosecutors present the phone recording evidence, even Deborah's few remaining supporters find it difficult to defend.

I heard the recording of Myra, who was already working with the cops.

The responses that my mom were giving were not responses to somebody who was innocent.

Keep your mouth shut.

What did you do?

Who have you talked to?

And then those were all I needed to hear because I know for a fact you don't make those those statements if you had nothing to do with anything.

I mean, it was devastating.

I just got up and I walked out and she turned around and saw me and she cried my name.

So it was kind of hard to just

deal with, you know?

On October 25th, 2005, the case goes to the jury.

We went through the whole six-week trial.

Debbie's looking at life in prison.

So it might sit in there going,

did they convince one of these jewels?

Yeah, so there's a little bit of anxiety because

I don't let killers go.

After three days of deliberation, the verdict is announced.

She was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, murder in the first degree, murder for financial gain, and she received life without the possibility of parole.

Justice for David Montemayer is all his wife Susan can ask for.

Over the next decade, she watches fate unravel for the rest of the defendants.

There was a trial for

each suspect in the case over the course of 10 years.

Susan, who I sat outside in the courtroom with a number of times, cried with a number of times, very strong lady.

And to go through all that over 10 years of trials, she's a tough woman.

In addition to Deborah, five others receive prison time.

The minor who was involved in the killing, he got life without the possibility of parole.

Mira, because she cooperated with the prosecution, she was convicted of manslaughter and she got a shorter prison sentence.

Macias and Martinez both got the death penalty, and so did Anthony Navalo.

Even to this day, my mom hasn't even understand the caliber of what happened, of what she did.

She's never confessed to me or even said sorry.

This crime left a grieving widow, grieving children.

It tore a hole through his,

all of his family.

She made decisions and ultimately

put her life, her brother's life, it put her father's life, it put her kids' life, all to the roulette wheel.

And, you know, we got snake eyes.

David Montemayer will always be be remembered for his infectious joy and his heroic last moments.

He was a good man and he was always smiling.

It was really hard to not be infected by his happiness.

David is actually remembered as a hero because he bolted from that car just a mile from his home.

He knew that his wife and children were there and that these were very bad men who were gonna do some very bad things.

So rather than put them in harm's way, he took the bullet himself and saved them.

I literally had to tell myself that my mom was dead so that I could actually begin the coping with the loss that I don't have the mom that I was used to.

And you know, she hurt me because I backed her.

So you know now you're taken away from me and now I have to suffer the consequences of whatever you did.

Deborah Perna is serving her sentence at the California Institution for Women.

She will never be released.

For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our town.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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