Woman Found Guilty of Killing Fortune Teller Over Failed Love Spell
Feb 18th, 2010 by Bilal Ali
An Orange County jury has found a woman guilty of murdering a Westminster fortune teller and her daughter because a love spell didn’t work.
Jurors on Tuesday found 45-year-old Tanya Nelson guilty of masterminding the murders of Ha “Jade” Smith andher 23-year old daughter Anita Vo five years ago.
The bodies of the mother and daughter were found repeatedly stabbed in the face inside their home on April 21, 2005.
The victims’ hands were covered in white paint, which may have been an attempt to cover up evidence, authorities said.
Prosecutors say Nelson hired Smith, a popular fortuneteller in the Vietnamese community, to bring her ex-lover back.
When the soothsayer told Nelson she couldn’t change reality, she became upset and plotted to drive across the country to kill her.
Nelson is accused of luring her accomplice Phillipe Zamora into the murder scheme by promising to fix him up with gay sex partners.
Zamora pleaded guilty last year to two counts of first-degree murder and testified against Nelson.
Nelson, who also uses the name Phuong Thao Nguyen and used to live in Orange County, is accused of assuming the identities of the victims after the killings, spending more than $3,000 on clothing and buying plane tickets for a family vacation in Southern California.
Smith, known as Miss Ha in the local Vietnamese community, did card and palm readings from an office at a strip mall in Midway City.
She was known nationally among Vietnamese-Americans as a skilled fortune-teller and had clients from as far away as New York.
Nelson faces the death penalty.