Man who helped dump murder victim’s body in Newport sentenced to 16 years

A man who admitted that he helped dump a woman’s body in Newport Beach after she was murdered for witnessing a gang-related shooting was sentenced to 16 years in prison Friday. But before the punishment was handed down, the victim’s sister had a message for him: “My family and I do not blame you, nor do we hate you.”

“You are not an evil person,” Yara Morales told Jaime Rocha, a 42-year-old Santa Ana gang member, during a hearing in Orange County Superior Court.

Rocha was a friend of Morales’ sister, 28-year-old Nancy Hammour, Morales said. But as the sun rose on Labor Day in 2013, he helped throw Hammour’s body over the side of a bridge spanning Newport Harbor.

Earlier that morning, Rocha was driving when another gang member in the car shot Hammour in the face as the three traveled south on the 55 Freeway, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The convicted shooter, 27-year-old Irvin Tellez, fired on Hammour because she had become hysterical after watching Tellez shoot another woman standing on a Santa Ana street minutes earlier. That victim survived.

“You have to live for the rest of your life knowing you heard Nancy’s last breath,” Morales told Rocha on Friday. “Being in your situation, I would have been scared for my life as well, and I understand why you went along with what Tellez wanted.”

After helping ditch the body, Rocha fled to Mexico with the rental car he drove during the shootings, according to prosecutor Jim Mendelson. But Rocha returned to the United States and was arrested after the rental company told him to return the car after he got in a traffic collision.

While in custody, Rocha told Newport Beach police about both shootings, Mendelson said. Investigators arrested Tellez soon after.

Rocha admitted that he helped dispose of Hammour’s body and agreed to testify against Tellez, Mendelson said.

In exchange, prosecutors reduced a murder charge against Rocha to involuntary manslaughter, with a sentencing enhancement for gang activity.

A jury convicted Tellez last month of first-degree murder, attempted murder and street terrorism, with sentencing enhancements including criminal street gang activity and personal discharge of a firearm causing death and great bodily injury.

Tellez could face life in prison at his sentencing Nov. 20.