Chili Finger Lady Anna Ayala Pleads Guilty For New Unfunny Lie

The so-called chili finger lady, California’s infamous serial liar Anna Ayala, is going back to prison. She accepted a plea deal on Tuesday which will result in a two year sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to three felonies that involved covering up for her 26-year-old son Guadalupe “Junior” Reyes.

As I reported in late February, the new lies began when Reyes accidentally shot himself in the ankle. Because of a previous felony conviction for burglary, he isn’t allowed to own a firearm.

When questioned by Santa Clara County police, Ayala provided an extremely detailed description of the two attackers that she claimed walked up and shot her son for absolutely no reason before fleeing the scene. Now I don’t think too many of us would criticize a mother for trying to protect her son.

The trouble is that Ayala deliberately tried to pin the crime on two men in her neighborhood, pretending not to know their names but describing them in such detail that the police were inevitably led to their door.

As the chili finger lady, Ayala first rose to national notoriety for a case where her husband bought a severed finger, which she planted in a bowl of chili in a San Jose Wendy’s restaurant. The stunt cost Wendy’s an estimated $21 million in lost sales — and Ayala four years in prison.

Both Reyes and Ayala were arrested in February. Because of their prior convictions, Superior Court Judge Phil Pennypacker set bail at $150,000 apiece for both prisoners, so they have been housed in the Santa Clara County jail ever since.

Ayala will be formerly sentenced in September. However, as a result of the deal, Pennypacker will sentence her to two years instead of four.

In exchange, she spared the Santa Clara County Court the expense of a trial by pleading guilty to three felonies, including being an accessory to a felony, filing a false police report, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Although the gun has never been found, she has confessed to helping her son get rid of it, leading to the possession and accessory charges on top of the lying charge.

The new lies could have had serious consequences, especially because of Anna Ayala’s experienced and detailed ability to spin a tale.

Prosecutor Bret Wasley emphasized that the police only caught on because her son cracked under questioning. Otherwise, the chili finger lady Anna Ayala’s new lies could have cost two men their freedom.

[gunshot photo by Phil McDonald via Shutterstock ]