![\"Ricos](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783524429_701_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMariana Yepez climbed the ranks of the Los Angeles street food scene before building her own taco empire.<\/p>\n
A native of Sonora, Mexico, Yepez and her husband toiled at various food trucks and restaurants until 2018, when they launched a series of stands named after their daughter: Ricos Tacos Naomi.<\/p>\n
Serving up heaps of fatty cabeza and sizzling al pastor, it grew to nearly a dozen locations spanning from Long Beach to L.A. to the Antelope Valley, drawing praise from prominent food critics.<\/p>\n
But now, Yepez sits in jail \u2014 accused of plotting to kill one of her employees.<\/p>\n
Yepez, 43, and a worker at Ricos Tacos Naomi are charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Soledad Lopez, who was last seen alive around 2 p.m. on Sept. 7. A second employee faces murder charges.<\/p>\n
Video surveillance showed the 47-year-old Lopez leaving work at one of the taco stands with her coworker, Sandra Romo Diaz. The pair then went to a warehouse related to the business, according to a transcript of a November court hearing.<\/p>\n
Lopez never emerged from the building. Prosecutors say Diaz was seen leaving and returning to the warehouse with two gas canisters. Diaz, according to prosecutors, then left driving Lopez\u2019s vehicle. Two days later, Los Angeles police found Lopez\u2019s charred body inside the car, according to a medical examiner\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
Diaz, 52, suffered burns to her arm and stomach while trying to incinerate the car and was soon after charged with Lopez\u2019s murder, according to a court transcript and a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
The grisly killing, authorities now say, was set in motion after Diaz, Lopez and Yepez were involved in a car crash and got into a dispute over money they received from a lawsuit. <\/p>\n
Authorities have not spelled out Yepez\u2019s alleged role in the plot, but the intervention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has complicated efforts to prosecute her and another man allegedly involved in the killing. One defendant in the case was ordered removed by an immigration judge and departed before trial, while Yepez was detained by ICE as the Los Angeles Police Department closed in.<\/p>\n
Yepez has pleaded not guilty, and her attorney, Justin Rodriguez, said \u201cshe\u2019s done nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s being put out as the fall guy,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI\u2019m confident she\u2019s going to be exonerated when all this is said and done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diaz\u2019s attorney, Matthew Barhoma, also maintained that his client is innocent \u2014 and blamed ICE for letting the people he accused of being the real killers get away with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are left to defend Sandra against a murder charge while the people we believe actually committed this crime are beyond reach,\u201d he said in an email to The Times. \u201cThat is an injustice \u2014 not only to Sandra, but to the memory of Soledad Lopez, whose family deserves answers, not a convenient arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n
A taco empire, a crash and a $11,500 check<\/p>\n
The taco stand where Lopez and Diaz worked together was in some ways the embodiment of the American dream.<\/p>\n
Yepez and her husband, who is from Guatemala, got their start working inside one of Roy Choi\u2019s Kogi BBQ trucks, serving up the short rib burritos that became an exemplar of Korean-Mexican fusion in the city.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ricos Tacos Naomi employees grill meats at one of the stand\u2019s 11 locations around the city. <\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Building off the success of the original Ricos Tacos Naomi spot in Panorama City, Yepez and her partner found a following despite lacking flair. Two stands visited recently by Times reporters didn\u2019t even have a sign displaying the name of the business. Still, customers have lined up across L.A. County. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a new street taco stand quickly taking over Los Angeles,\u201d L.A. Taco\u2019s Memo Torres wrote in a 2022 review.<\/p>\n
But authorities believe there were tensions between Yepez and her employee who was killed, according to a prosecutor\u2019s statements in court and a police report reviewed by The Times. <\/p>\n
After reporting Lopez missing last September, Lopez\u2019s daughter told a detective that Yepez had been mistreating her mother at work, the police report said.<\/p>\n
One of Yepez\u2019s relatives then told Lopez\u2019s daughter that her mother \u201cwent missing because she had allegedly stolen money from the business,\u201d according to the police report.<\/p>\n
The fight over finances allegedly stemmed from a January 2025 car crash. As Yepez drove Diaz and Lopez home from work one night, their vehicle was rear-ended at a red light, according to Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor turned civil attorney who represented the three women in their claim against the motorist who hit them.<\/p>\n
All three suffered \u201csoft tissue injuries,\u201d but Yepez refused to see a doctor so Rahmani said he had to drop her case. Lopez received a settlement check for approximately $11,500, according to Rahmani, while Diaz got about $10,000.<\/p>\n
A month before she went missing, Lopez\u2019s daughter said her mother gave Yepez her insurance check and asked her to cash it, according to the police report reviewed by The Times.<\/p>\n
Rahmani said the funds earmarked for Lopez were deposited into a Chase bank account on Aug. 28. The check was endorsed by Yepez, according to Rahmani. Lopez, however, was \u201cnever paid the funds,\u201d the police report said.<\/p>\n
Yepez\u2019s lawyer denied any wrongdoing by his client. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything I\u2019ve seen tends to show her innocence and her lack of involvement in any of the allegations,\u201d Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n
Police asked prosecutors in September to immediately charge Yepez in connection with Lopez\u2019s killing, but the L.A. County district attorney\u2019s office initially sent the case back for further investigation, according to an agency spokeswoman.<\/p>\n
But while police continued to piece together the case, Yepez was detained by federal immigration agents. And she wasn\u2019t the only suspect in the case to be pulled out of the LAPD\u2019s reach by immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
An order of removal and a \u2018suspect\u2019 detained by ICE<\/p>\n
The surveillance footage that captured Lopez and Diaz entering the warehouse used by Ricos Tacos Naomi also showed a third person accompanying them, according to the transcript of the November court hearing, in which prosecutors fought a defense effort to lower Diaz\u2019s bail.<\/p>\n
Diaz\u2019s attorney says that man was Oscar Villafranca, another employee of the taco stand.<\/p>\n
According to Rahmani, the lawyer who represented the three women after their car crash, Villafranca and Diaz were romantically involved. <\/p>\n
In the November bail hearing, a prosecutor referenced Lopez and Diaz meeting up with \u201canother man\u201d at the warehouse where police believe the killing occurred. But Villafranca isn\u2019t mentioned by name and the surveillance footage described in court did not appear to capture what happened inside the warehouse, according to the hearing transcript. During the hearing, the prosecutor did not say if Yepez was present on the night of the killing.<\/p>\n
Investigators believe Lopez died before the car was set on fire, but were unable to determine her exact cause of death or who killed her, because of the extreme fire damage her body suffered, according to the coroner\u2019s report. Her death was ruled a homicide.<\/p>\n
Villafranca, a Honduran national, left the U.S. on Sept. 21, two weeks after the killing, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said. Villafranca was first ordered removed from the country by an immigration judge during the Biden administration in August 2024. It was not clear if police were aware of Villafranca\u2019s alleged involvement in the conspiracy to kill Lopez at the time he left the country. <\/p>\n
The day after Villafranca departed the country, immigration agents came for Yepez.<\/p>\n
She was arrested on Sept. 22, according to a DHS spokesperson, who declined to answer questions about the nature of her arrest. <\/p>\n
A high-ranking Los Angeles law enforcement official, who requested anonymity to discuss an active case, said Yepez had already been identified as a \u201csuspect\u201d in the murder conspiracy investigation at the time. The official said this was \u201cnot the first time\u201d ICE had intercepted someone who was the target of an LAPD investigation in the past year, making it more difficult for local authorities to investigate and prosecute suspected crimes. The official blamed the confusion on California\u2019s \u201csanctuary state\u201d law, which limits cooperation between ICE and local police.<\/p>\n
The DHS spokesperson would not say if ICE knew of Villafranca or Yepez\u2019s alleged links to Lopez\u2019s death, or comment on agents\u2019 potential interference in a murder conspiracy case.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cCriminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district attorney\u2019s office filed conspiracy to commit murder charges against Yepez and Villafranca in April, eight months after Yepez was grabbed by ICE and Villafranca left the U.S. under threat of deportation. Villafranca\u2019s alleged role in Lopez\u2019s killing is unclear.<\/p>\n
ICE transferred Yepez back to L.A. County custody on June 2, and she remains jailed in lieu of $2 million as the case proceeds.<\/p>\n
Yepez\u2019s attorney said his client will be exonerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that once all the dust settles that she\u2019s going to be vindicated,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cShe has the support of her family and the community, and we aim to prove her innocence, and we\u2019re taking every step in that direction as we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors will seek to extradite Villafranca, according to the district attorney\u2019s office spokeswoman, who would not say if prosecutors have any idea where he is.<\/p>\n
Lopez\u2019s killing is not the first consequential criminal investigation that ICE\u2019s immigration enforcement blitz has disrupted in Southern California.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a Times investigation revealed ICE deported an informant<\/a> who had turned against two of his co-defendants in a meth smuggling case. Without his testimony, federal prosecutors lost at trial. A man facing a lengthy prison sentence for what authorities have called the largest jewel heist in U.S. history was also deported to Ecuador late last year before he could stand trial in Los Angeles.<\/a><\/p>\n