SANTA ANA, Calif.—A 42-year-old woman who helped her drug-trafficking friend kill a marijuana dealer who owed him money by taking the victim on her fishing boat off Dana Point Harbor to be beaten, shot and drowned was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison, prosecutors said April 18.
Sheila Marie Ritze of San Juan Capistrano was convicted in April 2022 of second-degree murder and lying to investigators stemming from the killing of 44-year-old Tri “James” Dao on Oct. 14, 2019. She was sentenced late Monday by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter.
Her co-defendant, Hoang Xuan Le, was convicted in 2021 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and using a firearm to commit a crime of violence, and last year he pleaded guilty to multiple other drugs- and weapons-related charges….