NC woman sentenced to death in California for killing Vietnamese fortuneteller and daughter

Woman gets death penalty in fortuneteller killing

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A woman was sentenced to death Friday for murdering a fortuneteller and her college-age daughter after the soothsayer told her to get over a lost lover.

Tanya Nelson, 45, of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., was sentenced for masterminding the stabbings of fortuneteller Ha “Jade” Smith, 52, and Anita Vo, 23, in 2005, Orange County prosecutors said.

Nelson hired fortuneteller Smith, known as Miss Ha in Orange County’s Vietnamese community, to get her ex-lover back. But when Smith told her to accept reality, she became upset and plotted to drive across the country to kill her, prosecutors said.

Smith and her daughter were stabbed as many as 10 times and their faces and hands were covered in white paint, which may have been an attempt to cover up evidence, prosecutors said.

Nelson lured her accomplice, Phillipe Zamora, 55, into the murder scheme by promising to fix him up with gay sex partners.

Zamora, who was a key witness against Nelson, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison last month.

Nelson, who also uses the name Phuong Thao Nguyen and used to live in Orange County, was also convicted of robbery for stealing Smith’s expensive jewelry after the murders and assuming Smith’s identity to buy $3,000 in clothing and plane tickets for a family vacation to Southern California.

When she returned to Orange County with her family, she was arrested with Smith’s stolen credit cards, identification cards and designer luggage.

Smith did card and palm readings and had clients across the country. She was famous among Vietnamese-Americans for wearing expensive jewelry and was considered a skilled fortuneteller.

Smith’s sister, Nicky Phan-Ngo, told the court at the sentencing that the murders had hurt her elderly parents, and the victims were missed.

“No amount of time will ever heal the pain, nor erase the memory of the ingrained and horrific images,” she said in a victim’s impact statement.