Man gets 46 years to life for murder

A man was sentenced to 46 years to life in state prison Friday for killing a man in a park after breaking into a Newport Beach home.

Derek Christopher Adams, 24, of Huntington Beach, was found guilty in August of one felony count each of second-degree murder, grand theft, first-degree residential burglary and aggravated assault, according to a news release from the Orange County district attorney’s office.

He was given sentencing enhancements for personal use of a firearm and the discharging of a firearm, causing great bodily injury or death.

Adams’ co-defendant and friend, 21-year-old Huntington Beach resident Marissa Star Bilotti, is charged with one felony count each of murder, aggravated assault and first-degree residential burglary, with two sentencing enhancements.

She faces a maximum sentence of nearly 35 years to life in state prison.

Prosecutors contend that in October 2010, Adams and Bilotti broke into the home of Cody Mosher, who was dating a woman Adams was interested in. The girlfriend argued with both of them until Adams got a knife from the kitchen and used it to stab Mosher, who was superficially wounded, according to the D.A.

Before leaving Mosher’s home, the two allegedly stole Mosher’s cell phone and took money from the girlfriend’s purse.

Later that day, Adams met the girlfriend at Murdy Park in Huntington Beach under the guise of giving the phone back.

After the girlfriend arrived with two friends, Adams shot one of them, Gregory Heintz, of Garden Grove, once in the stomach, prosecutors said.

Heintz, 32, was taken to a hospital and died soon after.

Bilotti is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Dec. 14 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

While in jail, she reportedly married fellow accused murderer Iftekhar Murtaza, who’s suspected of helping kill the father and sister of his ex-girlfriend, a UC Irvine student, in 2007. One of Murtaza’s co-defendants was sentenced in November for the murders.

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