A San Jose woman who served four years in prison for the notorious severed-finger-in-chili scam will be sent back to the state clink for a new hoax– this time, for two years.
Anna Ayala, 47, picked up the new prison term by hiding the fact that her son had accidentally shot himself in the ankle with a gun he was not allowed to have because he was on parole.
Instead of coming clean about the Oct. 21 shooting, Ayala and her son, Guadalupe “Junior” Reyes, 26, blamed it on two men, including someone they apparently didn’t like, prompting police to interrogate the mystified suspect.
Reyes will also get two years in state prison when mother and son are formally sentenced in September. He was on parole for a felony burglary conviction at the time of the shooting in Alviso and subsequent lies.
In the meantime, they will remain guests of the Santa Clara County jail, where they have been locked up in lieu of $150,000 bail each since their February arrest.
The two pled no contest earlier this week under a deal offered by Superior Court Judge Phil Pennypacker.
The judge could have sentenced Ayala to four years and eight months. But her early admissions of guilt saved the system from what surely would have been a circus of a trial.
The sentence came as a slight disappointment to the prosecution.
“I understand where the judge is coming from, but I respectfully disagree,” prosecutor Bret Wasley said. “Four years would have been reasonable since she has a history of manipulating the system.”
Ayala pled no contest to three crimes: being an accessory to a felony, filing a false police report and being a felon in possession of a firearm. That last charge was added because she helped her son get rid of the gun, which still has not been found.
Ayala first earned notoriety in 2005 when she planted a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili and claimed to have discovered it, grabbing worldwide headlines and costing millions in business, according to the restaurant chain.
She had been sentenced to nine years for that crime. But the case came back for re-sentencing after a successful appeal based on a technical sentencing error. The judge in that case could once again have imposed the nine-year term, but chose four instead.
And just like in 2005 when Ayala planted the severed finger, police say this time around she gave compelling detail. It was her son who offered a weak account and wound up cracking under questioning, the prosecutor said.
“He basically gave her up,” Wasley said.
Contact Tracey Kaplan at 408-278-3482. Twitter: @tkaplanreport.