YUCCA VALLEY WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDER MINUTES BEFORE TRIAL

After three days of jury selection, a Yucca Valley woman pleaded guilty to murder in a Joshua Tree courtroom Monday. Against her lawyer’s advice, and just as her trial was set to begin, Diana Jordan, 38, changed her plea to guilty in the murder of Lauren McLane, 22, of Yucca Valley. In December 2010, McLane left her job at the Dollar Tree store but never arrived home. Prosecutors say Jordan and co-defendant, Heidi McDermott, 32—who accepted a plea bargain of voluntary manslaughter last week—lured McLane to Jordan’s home and killed her because Jordan and McLane were seeing the same man. McLane’s body was found in Jordan’s garage inside a plastic container along with bloody sledgehammers and a wrench. Jordan’s sentencing is set for Friday. McDermott’s sentencing is scheduled for December 6.