Ex-boyfriend of daughter of failed Chicago bank executive guilty in death of her fiancee in San Diego

The daughter of the late president and CEO of a failed Bridgeport bank was at the center of a San Diego court case in which her ex-boyfriend was convicted this week of killing her fiancee.

Amy Gembara’s ex-boyfriend, Jesse Milton Alvarez, was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder and discharging a firearm in the Feb. 1, 2021, death of Mario Fierro.

Fierro, 37, was gunned down as he was preparing to leave for work at Cathedral Catholic High School, where Gembara also works, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. He was killed less than two months after the school announced he and Gembara were engaged.

Amy Gembara’s late father, John F. Gembara, was CEO, president and board chairman of Washington Federal Bank for Savings, the Bridgeport institution he ran into the ground by embezzling millions of dollars that have yet to be recovered. The Gembara family ran the bank for three generations.

Days after federal regulators discovered the embezzlement scheme, John Gembara was found dead on Dec. 3, 2017, sitting in a chair with a rope around his neck in the Park Ridge bedroom of Marek Matczuk, a friend and contractor who owed the bank millions of dollars. The bank was closed Dec. 15, 2017.

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The ongoing investigation has led to federal criminal charges against three bank board members, including John Gembara’s sister, Janice Weston; six bank employees and seven customers, including Matczuk and then Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, who represented the Bridgeport neighborhood on the City Council.

In the San Diego case, Alvarez made multiple online searches leading up to the shooting — including “how to shoot someone in self-defense,” and “how to kill your ex’s fiancee,” according to the San Diego County district attorney’s office. Prosecutors say Alvarez waited outside Fierro’s home for nearly an hour on the day of the shooting.

Prosecutors alleged Alvarez was obsessed with Amy Gembara after she broke off their relationship, showing up at her home, trying to contact her through others, turning up while she was at Disneyland. He got a job in the school cafeteria but was escorted off campus when staffers recognized him from a school security flyer, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.