Published: Sept. 1, 2011 Updated: 3:00 p.m.

Death sentence for gang member in murder-for-hire plot

By LARRY WELBORN / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – A Pacoima gang member sat fidgeting at a counsel table Thursday with his hands chained to his waist when he was sentenced to death for killing a Buena Park businessman nearly nine years ago during a kidnap and murder-for-money plot orchestrated by the victim’s sister.

Armando Macias, 35, became the third conspirator to receive the death penalty for the Oct. 2, 2002, shooting death of David Montemayor, 44, who was gunned down on a residential street when he tried to escape from his kidnappers so they would not reach his home and harm his family.

Macias, who has the name of his violent street gang tattooed on the back of his shaved head, turned around a few times and smiled at family members in the courtroom before he was led out.

“This was a caught-in-the-act murder,â€