Margaret Mae Rion, 57

Margaret Mae Rion, a 57-year-old white woman, was found dead Tuesday, May 27, in the 4100 block of Maybank Avenue in Lakewood, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.

Deputies had gone to her apartment about 6:30 p.m. to respond to a report of a woman shot to death after Rion’s body was found by a relative with “trauma to the upper torso,” according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.

Rion was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m., said Ed Winter, a coroner’s spokesman. A autopsy showed that Rion died from multiple traumatic injuries.

Rion’s daughter, Angie Diamond, a 32-year-old white woman, was booked on suspicion of murder the next day.

Diamond told deputies that she killed Rion with a hammer and a knife after a verbal dispute. The weapons were recovered at Rion’s home. 

On May 30, Diamond pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with a special allegation that she used a knife and hammer during the crime, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said Diamond killed her mother on May 25, two days before family found Rion. Diamond is being held in lieu of $1.14-million bail.

-- Megan Garvey and Richie Duchon