In a way, cemeteries are like libraries. They contain the final resting places of thousands of people, each with their own separate and unique story. Some of these people are famous, and their stories are well known. Most are not, but that doesn't make their life any less interesting or their stories any less worthy of being told and remembered.
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Nov. 1, 2009, updated April 26, 2025 -- The unique beauty of her grave marker is what first caught my attention. I had never seen anything like it. It was a simple bronze marker at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier. But it was colorfully painted to show a smiling, beautiful girl who died at the age of 22, with long, dark hair, in front of a background of blue sky and white clouds. Perhaps it was designed to show her place in heaven.
The marker identifies the grave of Shanta Diane Lucero, a resident of Long Beach, Calif., a single mother of an infant son who was shot to death just a few weeks before her 23rd birthday. She was killed in an alley in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles, shot in the back by a cowardly killer. Her death was initially suspected to have been retaliation for her testimony against a man who was tried and convicted of the attempted murder of Lucero's friend three years before.
On Sept. 24, 2004, Lucero went to pick up her friend, Quennie Reyna, at the apartment Renya shared with her boyfriend* of five years, on Canal Street in Long Beach. Lucero's friend came out of the apartment and got into Lucero's car.
A few minutes later, Renya went back into the apartment and came out again, followed by her boyfriend. They were arguing. The boyfriend had a lengthy criminal record, including drug and weapons offenses, and he was on parole at the time of the incident.
Renya's boyfriend told her that she was not going to leave, but Renya said she was. Renya got back into Lucero's car, and Renya's boyfriend went back into the apartment -- and returned with a shotgun, which he pointed at Renya's head.
Lucero got out of her car and stood between Renya and her boyfriend, telling him to put the shotgun away. Instead, the boyfriend shot Renya in the back of the neck and ran off.
Renya survived the shooting. A police officer who examined Renya at the hospital testified that she had a hole in her head that went from one side of the back of her neck to the other side.
A month after the shooting, Renya's boyfriend was arrested in Texas and sent back to California, where he was tried and convicted on charges of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a felon. In 2005, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for attempted murder, and 25 years to life for possession of a firearm by a felon.
Lucero testified against him at his trial. She did not accept the gang code of silence.
Renya's boyfriend is currently being held at the Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, California, and is eligible for parole in October 2028.
Four years after Renya's shooting, on Sept. 14, 2008, just before midnight, a security guard found Lucero's body in an alley behind a building in the 1300 block of Alameda Street near Pacific Coast Highway, in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles. She had been shot three times in the back.
At the time, newspapers covering Lucero's slaying, including the L.A. Times and the L.A. Daily News, strongly suggested that her death was retaliation for her testimony against Renya's boyfriend -- even though there was no evidence linking the cases. And, as it turned out, the cases were not related.
In July 2015, three Southern California gang members were arrested for their roles in Lucero's death, and court documents shed new light on the case. The court documents are important because the trial was not covered by any Southern California newspaper.
In 2006, Lucero started an affair with a married man we'll call Suspect A* -- a member of a Southern California street gang under the control of the Mexican Mafia. Their relationship was physically brutal. Suspect A, who had a lengthy criminal record of violence, regularly beat Lucero and burned her with cigarettes. When Lucero became pregnant with Suspect A's child, he urged her to have an abortion because his wife was also pregnant.
Lucero briefly left California, but she didn't have an abortion. In May 2007, she returned to California, moved in with Suspect A, along with their child, and the domestic abuse and brutal beatings continued.
In July 2007, Suspect A was arrested on charges of domestic violence for his frequent attacks on Lucero. To prevent Lucero from testifying against him, he insisted that she move out of the area. She complied, and moved to Lompoc, California, about 150 miles from Los Angeles.
When Suspect A was released from custody in February 2008, Lucero moved back to Los Angeles, moved back in with Suspect A, and the violence and beatings continued.
In June 2008, Lucero was carrying her infant son outside of the home she shared with Suspect A when he repeatedly punched her in the face. He brought her back inside, where the beating continued. Lucero suffered a broken nose, burst blood vessels in her eyes, and a swollen jaw.
Friends insisted that, because of her severe injuries, Lucero should be taken to a hospital for treament, where she told police that Suspect A was responsible for her beating.
When Suspect A learned that Lucero had spoken to police, he told her to call police and tell them that a group of women had attacked and beaten her. She did call police, but she told them that Suspect A had told her to blame someone else for her injuries.
Suspect A was arrested and formally charged with domestic violence and dissuading a witness. Before the preliminary court hearing on the charges, Suspect A contacted Lucero and warned her that he would have her killed if she testified at the court hearing. A new felony conviction for Suspect A would be a "third strike" for him under California law, and he knew that would likely put him in prison for life.
In August 2008, Lucero told Suspect A that he needed to "take responsibility" for his actions, and that she planned to testified against him, which she did.
In early September 2008, Suspect A contacted Suspect B, a "shot caller" in Suspect A's gang who could make decisions about gang activities. A key policy of the Mexican Mafia -- and the street gangs under its control -- is that cooperating with law enforcement against gang members is punishable by death. And Shanta Lucero was cooperating with police. Her fate was sealed.
Suspect B called Suspect C -- a younger gang member anxious to "earn his stripes" by committing crimes for the gang. Suspect B arranged for Suspect C to get a gun from the gang's armorer, who provided weapons for gang activities.
Late on the evening of Sept. 13, 2008, Suspect C, who had been provided with a gun, called Lucero and told her he would be coming to her home in Long Beach to pick her up. He drove her to an alley on Alameda Street near Pacific Coast Highway, in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles. He told her to get out of the car, forced her to kneel on the pavement, and then shot her three times in the back. It's likely that her killer, a young gang member who was only 21 at the time, wasn't able to face her when he shot her, so he shot her in the back.
Although police weren't able to quickly make any arrests, investigators slowly and methodically built their case. A key piece of evidence was phone records. Suspect C initially claimed that he didn't know Lucero, but he was unable to explain the calls between his phone and Lucero's on the night of her killing, or how their phones were traveling in tandem from Long Beach to Harbor City in the minutes before her death.
Suspects A, B and C were all arrested in July 2015, and all three were charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and criminal street gang conspiracy. After a lengthy jury trial held in the summer of 2021, all three defendants were found guilty of first-degree murder, and all were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. All three are currently being held in the California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster.
Interestingly and sadly, there was virtually no newspaper or media coverage of the death Shanta Lucero, and no coverage of the trial of her killers. There were 380 homicides reported in Los Angeles County in 2008 -- the lowest level in nearly 50 years. But Shanta Lucero -- a mother, daughter, granddaughter and friend -- was just another quickly forgotten statistic.
Shanta Lucero should not be remembered for the way she died, but for her strength, bravery and courage, for standing up for her friend and testifying against the man who shot her, and for testifying against the man who regularly abused her, and was eventually responsible for her death. She did the right thing, and she didn't cower under threats of violence. She did not accept the street gang's code of silence, of protecting the guilty. Unfortunately, she paid for her courage with her life.
Special thanks for this update goes to Barrio Tales for providing new information on this case, and their YouTube video, which provides additional information on the death of Shanta Lucero, and the three men who were responsible.
(*We typically don't identify killers or criminals on these pages. Instead, we focus on the victims.)
Previous Grave Spotlights
Periodically, we'll spotlight a different Los Angeles-area grave. Every person has a story, and we will use this space to tell their story, through their final resting place.
Shanta Diane Lucero
(Nov. 26, 1985 - Sept. 14, 2008)
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