A woman pleaded guilty Monday to being behind the wheel in a deadly drive-by shooting of an innocent bystander in Santa Ana.
Brooke Victoria De La Cruz, 28, of Orange, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of being an accessory after the fact. As part of her plea deal, felony counts of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and gang enhancements for gang activity were dismissed. She is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 19.
Co-defendant Mark Remmers, 23, is charged with murder and attempted murder with special circumstances allegations of a drive-by shooting. He is awaiting trial.
Remmers is accused of killing 36-year-old Maria Del Rufugio Mora Dec. 4, 2022.
Police were called just before 4:30 p.m. to the shooting where they found the victim in the parking lot of The Pizza Trio at 1473 S. Main St., prosecutors said.
De La Cruz was driving her 2014 Toyota Camry that was used in the shooting, prosecutors said.
She was with Remmers and two other men when he asked her to make a U-turn so he could do a gang hit-up on some males, prosecutors said in court papers. Remmers and the others got out of the car to assault two “little boys,” and shots rang out, prosecutors said.
De La Cruz drove the men away from the scene. Remmers was her boyfriend for several months, prosecutors said.
Mora was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and died five days later, police said. Mora was a mother of three sons, police said.