Three charged in attack

A Fountain Valley wife, her alleged lover and a Huntington Beach grocery store employee have been charged with conspiring in the attempted slaying of the woman’s husband with a machete, authorities said.

Fountain Valley Police Sgt. Rob Sweaza said Mary Katheryn Sharpski, 46, confessed to conspiring to kill her husband during a police interview.

She worked with her tenant and boyfriend, Michael Calvin Shores II, 39, and meat wrapper Antonio Cinco Ortega, 23, of Santa Ana, in planning an attack on her husband, Frank Sharpski, authorities said.

Ortega worked as a meat clerk at Stater Bros. in Huntington Beach, and had a personal knife collection, Sweaza said.

Shores lived in the Sharpskis’ home for one year, and he and Sharpski hoped to live together with her three children “as a family,” after her husband’s slaying, prosecutors said.

They met with Ortega, a friend of Shores, and told him Frank Sharpski’s daily routes; Mary Sharpski said she would pay Ortega for the killing, authorities said.

Early in the morning of March 3, Ortega attacked Frank Sharpski outside his apartment in the 17300 block of Euclid Street and began slicing him with a machete, authorities said; they accuse him of “fracturing the victim’s skull, severing a thumb and fingers, partly severing his nose, causing several machete wounds, and leaving him to die.”

Fountain Valley police arrived at the scene at 5:51 a.m., after receiving calls from neighbors who heard Sharpski’s terrified screams, and found Sharpski semi-conscious, “bleeding severely,” authorities said. He underwent several surgeries, and is recovering from the attack.

Ortega allegedly left forensic evidence at the crime scene, authorities said, which helped detectives in their investigation.

All three have been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a crime and mayhem, along with a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury. An additional enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon has been handed to Ortega.

The three were arraigned earlier this week, and face several life sentences if convicted. They will be back in court April 17 in Westminster.

Reporter CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at [email protected].