Mexican Mafia articles

Mexican Mafia web article thread. Please post articles you come across here, they're useful for us all.

Boxer Enriquez parole blocked by Governor of California - Fox News (2015)
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/21/california-governor-blocks-parole-for-ex-mexican-mafia-gang-leader/

Recent cases highlight ways Texas Mexican Mafia deals with internal conflicts -  KSAT (2015)
http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/2015/02/19/-recent-cases-highlight-ways-texas-mexican-mafia-deals-with-inte.html

Women play active role in Mexican Mafia - exceptional case of high-ranking female within the Mexican Mafia. KSAT (2015)
http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/mexican-mafia/women-play-active-role-in-mexican-mafia.html

East LA Gang Members With Ties To Mexican Mafia Indicted On Federal Racketeering Charges -  CBS Los Angeles (2014).
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/12/10/east-la-gang-members-with-ties-to-mexican-mafia-indicted-on-federal-racketeering-charges/

LAPD spent $22K to have ex-Mexican Mafia leader, killer, to speak at dinner (from the article: `Private executives and high-profile law enforcement were invited to hear a former Mexican Mafia gang leader and killer speak at a dinner costing taxpayers a mere $22,000.`) Intellihub (2015). A lot of articles on this recent revelation.
https://www.intellihub.com/lapd-spent-22k-ex-mexican-mafia-leader-killer-speak-dinner/

Articles about the aforementioned speech by Rene `Boxer` Enriquez:

LAPD Under Fire After Arranging Mexican Mafia Leader To Wealthy Dinner For The Entertainment Of Business Executives - JonathanTurley.org (2015)
http://jonathanturley.org/2015/03/25/lapd-under-fire-after-arranging-mexican-mafia-leader-to-wealthy-dinner-for-the-entertainment-of-business-executives/

Beck: LAPD to review 'number of issues' in ex-Mexican Mafia leader event - LA Times (2015)
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-beck-lapd-mexican-mafia-20150324-story.html

LAPD TOOK MEXICAN MAFIA KILLER TO DINNER FOR $22,000 - Breitbart (2015)
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/03/22/lapd-spent-big-on-murderer-meeting/

Imprisoned Mafia Hit Man's Secretive Speech in Downtown LA Prompts Call for Investigation - NBC Los Angeles (2015)
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Mexican-Mafia-Hit-Man-Rene-Enriquez-Downtown-LA-Meeting-LAPD-290166361.html

Vice also did a little article on Rene's day out with the LAPD, which cost them $22,000.

https://news.vice.com/article/the-lapd-spent-22k-to-have-a-jailed-mexican-mafia-hit-man-speak-at-a-private-event

Gang 'tax collector' gets life for shooting that left infant dead LA Times (2013), both articles on the same story. Gang member whose actions incurred the wrath of the Mexican Mafia who subsequently placed a greenlight on Meija.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/10/local/la-me-ln-gang-tax-collector-life-sentence-child-dead-20131010
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gang-member-convicted-of-baby-murder-20130830-story.html

Prosecutors say daughter of jailed Mexican Mafia kingpin ran US gang - "Vianna Roman acted as her father's surrogate, controlling the gang on behalf of Danny Roman while he was locked away at Pelican Bay," Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Barron, the lead prosecutor in the case, told Reuters in an interview." Chicago Tribune (2012)
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-06/business/sns-rt-usa-crimelosangeles-gang-update-1l1e8n7004-20121206_1_mexican-mafia-kingpin-gang-members-indictment

Articles on the alleged `Mexican Mafia kingpin` referred to in previous article:

Danny Roman: The Latino godfather - Voxxi.com (2012)
http://voxxi.com/2012/12/10/danny-roman-latino-godfather/

Inside the SHU Part 2: Prison gangs - Triplicate.com (2013)
http://www.triplicate.com/News/Local-News/Inside-the-SHU-Part-2-Prison-gangs

Trial begins in murder case featuring prison gang leader, former Mexican Mafia boss.

Prison gang leader Silvestre "Chikali" Mayorqui-Rivera is accused of fatally kicking, stomping and beating Manuel "Tati" Torrez, 64, the former head of the Mexican Mafia, at 8:45 a.m. on April 21, 2005, in a caged exercise yard inside the highest security prison in the U.S., Administrative Maximum U.S. Penitentiary, or ADX.

A grand jury indictment wasn't brought until March 24, 2010.

Mayorqui-Rivera faces life in prison for his charge of first-degree murder. His accomplice Richard "Chuco" Santiago, who recently fired his attorney and is already serving a life prison term for another prison murder, faces the death penalty. The defendants will be tried separately.

"It's a fascinating case," defense attorney David Lane said Friday of the two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn.

According to Lane, the brutal battle that took place in a caged exercise yard was a matter of kill or be killed.

Lane said Mayorqui-Rivera and Torrez should have never been together in the same yard with not one correctional officer around. He said it took staff five minutes after the deadly beating began to discover it was taking place in one of the most closely surveilled prisons in America.

A prison assault unit was sent in to quell the fight. The only problem was that they were sent to the wrong yard, delaying their response by another 18 minutes, Lane said. By the time they arrived, Torrez was dead.

"It was self-defense," Lane said.

Torrez, who had previously ordered hits against those who didn't follow his orders, had a hit-team assembled on the yard, and when Santiago tried to negotiate a truce through an intermediary, Torrez scoffed, he said.

According to court records, Torrez, the shot-caller for the Mexican Mafia, was sent to ADX near Florence in Colorado after he attempted to gain control of all activities among the Latino population at the U.S. Penitentiary at Lompoc in California, according to a court record.

The federal government argues that the video and a mountain of other evidence indicates the attack was premeditated.

Four suspected members of the Mexican Mafia, including a man believed to be one of the gang’s most established leaders, pleaded not guilty on Monday morning to federal racketeering and violent crimes charges. (This guy's trial started this month, so keep an eye out for updates)

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ojeda-669234-indictment-gang.html

Nearly two dozen members of three Northeast Los Angeles gangs united by the Mexican Mafia have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of racketeering, extorting money from drug sellers and conspiring to kill rivals. Homeboy Industries, Dugdale said, was a location that was utilized by several defendants. Some gang members were utilizing that charitable organization to hide their “criminal stripes,” he said.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-indict-mexican-mafia-20150618-story.html

David Acosta, 40, pleaded guilty in April to extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, and transportation and sale of drugs. He also admitted to special enhancements, including street terrorism.

Acosta is one of 27 people indicted in November 2012 for their involvement in the Mexican Mafia, an organized prison gang that orders crimes such as killings, extortion and drug dealing inside and outside of prison, authorities allege.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/local/oxnard/oxnard-man-gets-17-year-sentence-in-mexican-mafia-case-ep-1081556216-344770702.html

The City Attorney's office says it is moving against the 18th Street gang on behalf of residents who can't file suit themselves because they can't afford the expenses and they fear retaliation. Gangs control certain neighborhoods by exacting so-called "street taxes" on home and business owners as well as street vendors.

The suit seeks compensation for property damage, emotional distress, personal injury, and intangibles such as residents not being able to use public parks because of gang activity.

It names nine leaders of the 18th Street gang, which has operated for years in the Pico-Union and Westlake areas. One of the leaders, Ruben "Night Owl" Castro, is serving multiple life terms in a federal maximum security prison but still allegedly controls two gang subgroups, the Shatto Park Locos and the Hoover Locos.

The damages collected in the suit will be placed in a fund to aid the neighborhoods affected by the gang activity, says Bruce Riordan, director of the city attorney office's antigang operations and a former federal prosecutor of the 18th Street gang and Mexican Mafia.

The fund will be administered by the City Council, he says, and will most likely go toward security cameras, graffiti removal, or beautification of parks.

"Gang members are not necessarily the best at saving their money, but they do buy stuff and invest in property and make cash down payments," says Mr. Riordan.

One gang member, Frank "Puppet" Martinez made as much as $40,000 a month while still behind bars, he says. At the home of one of his relatives, investigators found $444,605 in cash, stashed in storage boxes and a vacuum cleaner bag. Included on the bills were 18th Street gang markings as well as street and collectors' names.

Concerns over civil liberties

Los Angeles has been at the forefront of using public nuisance injunctions against gang members since the 1980s, and other cities such as San Francisco have followed its lead, says Austen Parrish, vice dean for academic affairs and professor of law at Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles.

The city currently has 463 known gangs with 26,000 members, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

But the use of injunctions has been controversial, Mr. Parrish says, because of "perceived selective enforcement and various civil rights issues."

The new law, too, "may raise significant civil rights issues depending on how it's used," Mr Parrish adds.

Unlike with organized groups, street gang members may be hard to identify.

"Gangs are not like a corporation with a company house and car. There are potentially lots of arguments over who is in the gang and what that means," says Peter Bibring, staff attorney for the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Some local observers have already questioned the motivations of the city attorney and the efficacy of the law. "Gang injunctions are showy, quick-fix, politically-motivated PR gimmicks that do nothing to reduce gang violence," says Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable.

Guilt by association, he says, ensures criminalization of "countless numbers of young blacks and Latinos who are not gang members."

It would be better, he adds, to fund skills training, drug counseling and rehabilitation, mentoring, and family support programs."

Where gang members keep their money and other assets is another question that troubles civil libertarians. They want to know whether the rights of those not engaged in criminal activity will be protected.

"Suppose an alleged gang member's grandmother received some jewelry … do prosecutors suddenly get to go after her house as well?" asks Mr. Bibring.

"It's one thing if the bags of money are marked, 'income from cocaine' – but how due process gets sorted out becomes a much more difficult problem," he says. "This is potentially a hugely complicated question."

August 15, 2008.

Mexican Mafia member Juvenal Vega-Soto, 52, was sentenced Thursday to a life prison term for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Vega-Soto was one of 35 people convicted in the conspiracy, which involved two murders, extortion, robberies and narcotics trafficking.

Seven other defendants were sentenced to life terms in March, and the kingpin is set to be sentenced in October. Vega-Soto was convicted by a jury in April after being extradited from Mexico.

Mexican Mafia members Ricardo Polanco 26, and Arthur Garcia 37, received sentences of 50 and 55 years to life for the murder of Frankie "Frankie B" Buelna in 2005. Buelna was green lighted by longtime Mafia enforcer Darryl Castrejon for collecting taxes in his area without authorization. Castrejon is scheduled to appear in court September 24 in Pomona.

Janette V. Amaya 51, a tax collector for Inland Empire shot caller Salvador Orozco Hernandez receives a six year prison term after pleading no contest to a charge of transporting heroin for sale. Amaya also pled no contest to charges of violating probation in cases involving real-estate fraud and drug transportation.

Amaya was convicted of the special circumstance of being a gang member and was alleged to have "recruited females to run guns and drugs and do other business for the Mexican Mafia."

Nine leaders of the 18th Street gang are named in a suit filed by Los Angeles city attorney Rock Delgadillo demanding civil damages on behalf of residents of two Los Angeles neighborhoods.

According to the suit, proceeds from the suit "if successful," would be returned to the neighborhoods in question: The leaders named in the suit are Sergio "Tricky" Pantoja, Frank "Puppet" Martinez, Araceli "Traviesa" Bravo, Michael "Mousie" Pineda, Jose Juan "Wicked" Alvarez, Noe "Lil Duster" Chavez, Efrain "DandyBoy" Ruiz Torres, Jose "Toro" Morales Perez and Ruben "Nite Owl" Castro. Castro, 46, is a leading figure in the Mexican Mafia, controlling two of the cliques associated with the 18th Street gang -- the Shatto Park Locos and the Hoover Locos.

Castro was recently sentenced on charges of having run those gang cliques from the federal maximum-security prison in Florence Colorado, where he is serving multiple life terms. He was sentenced November 18 to serve an additional 27 years and three months for racketeering. Frank "Puppet" Martinez is another La Eme carnal, is alleged to have brought as much as $40,000 a month from criminal activity. Authorities confiscated a stash in excess of $440,000 from the home of one of Martinez's relatives which was collected in connection with 18th street gang criminal dealings.

Mexican Mafia associate green-lit after snitching on family.

http://www.laweekly.com/news/drew-street-killer-faces-mexican-mafia-bounty-after-snitching-on-the-family-5052455

Mexican Mafia hit man released on bail.

A man mistakenly released on $65,000 bail after allegedly threatening to kill three people while brandishing a handgun, then leading police on a car chase, was re-arrested Monday after a two-week search.

Leo Cienfuegos, 39, was being held in Redondo Beach Jail without bail following his arrest and arraignment Monday.

An arrest warrant accuses Cienfuegos of false imprisonment and making threats to inflict serious injury or death, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and evading a law officer, all felonies.

Cienfuegos had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1983 and armed robbery in 1991. His arrest warrant alleged that Cienfuegos "is an active participant in a criminal street gang" and recommended that bail be set at $1 million.

A procedural error resulted in Cienfuegos’ bail being set at $65,000 initially, police said. He was released Sunday, March 25, from Los Angeles County Jail after his bail was paid by a bondsman, sheriff’s deputies said. Typically, arrested crime suspects pay 10 percent of the bail amount to a bondsman.

After Cienfuegos’ release, police obtained a new warrant for his arrest and set up undercover surveillance of the area he was known to frequent, said Redondo Beach Police Capt. Jeff Cameron.

Redondo detectives found Cienfuegos in a northeast Los Angeles neighborhood, and officers from Redondo Beach and the Los Angeles Police Department arrested him around 7:30 p.m. Monday, Redondo Police Sgt. Phil Keenan said. Cienfuegos was found in possession of a loaded .38 caliber handgun, police said.

On Friday, March 23, two teenagers said that Cienfuegos threatened them with a gun and held them near a business on the 600 block of S. Pacific Coast Highway for nearly two hours.

Cienfuegos allegedly told them that he was a "hit man" for the "Mexican Mafia" and that he would kill them if they didn’t cooperate. He allegedly told them he was going to kill or maim a woman he thought was responsible for a friend getting a prison sentence of 25 years to life. Cienfuegos thought the woman lived in the area.

After two hours of drinking beer and smoking marijuana, he told the men he had revealed too much and left, then he returned 15 minutes later, police said. At that point the two victims called police and pointed out the man’s car.

When police approached the vehicle, the driver sped off, leading officers on a four-minute chase ending near the corner of Aviation Boulevard and Mathews Avenue, police said.

The man stopped when a Hawthorne Police Department helicopter shone a light on the car. A loaded .44 magnum handgun was found in the driver’s possession and a .38 Special handgun was found in the car, officers said. The man was wearing latex gloves underneath cotton gloves, and a ski mask and duct tape were found in his car, officers said.

The leader of the Oxnard-based Colonia Chiques street gang was sentenced to life without parole in federal prison, plus an additional 55-year consecutive term, for his conviction on a host of narcotics and weapons offenses, including leading a continuing criminal enterprise with ties to the Mexican Mafia prison gang.

http://www.keyt.com/news/leader-of-oxnard-gang-and-mexican-mafia-associate-sentenced-to-life-without-parole-in-federal-prison-for-drug-and-gun-offenses/32610320

A Mexican hit man has been executed for murdering a woman who failed to pay "tax" on her drug sales.

Manuel Vasquez, 46, was killed by lethal injection for beating and strangling 51-year-old Juanita Ybarra in San Antonio in 1998.

His sister and a friend cried as they watched his death through a window at the prison in Huntsville.

Ybarra’s sister also witnessed the execution and Vasquez was pronounced dead 17 minutes after he was injected.

In a final statement he told his family and friends he loved them and thanked "the Lord for his kind mercy, faithfulness and unconditional love".

"In Jesus' name I pray," he said, before telling the warden: "I'm ready."

Vasquez and two associates had been instructed by Mexican Mafia boss Rene Munoz to murder Ybarra for failing to pay a 10% tax on the proceeds of her street drugs sales.

The trio confronted Ybarra and her boyfriend Moses Bazan at a motel in San Antonio in 1998.

Ybarra was beaten and strangled with a telephone cord by Vasquez.

Bazan was severely beaten and stabbed, but he managed to survive and identified his attackers.

One of the men, Johnny Joe Cruz, testified against Vasquez in a plea deal that saw him imprisoned for seven years. The third man, Oligario Lujan, was sentenced to 35 years.

Vasquez was the fourth Texas inmate put to death this year and at least six are scheduled for execution in the coming weeks.

But the state only has enough of of the lethal drug for one more killing.

A court decision which ruled the names of suppliers of the drug must be made public has made obtaining supplies difficult.

Many states in the US are facing a shortage because some manufacturers are refusing to sell their chemicals for capital punishment.

I believe that's the Mexikanemi or the Texas Mexican Mafia. They're not connected with the California Mexican Mafia.

On Dec. 28, 2004, five gunshots pierced the front door of high-ranking Mexican Mafia member Brian Harris, seriously wounding him. But unlike most gang shootings, this time the victim talked, helping to put others behind bars. In interviews and letters over a six-month period, Harris talked about his rise from a street tough in Santa Fe Springs to "key-holder" for the Mexican Mafia, his falling out with the gang and his conversion to reluctant informant.

Brian Harris couldn't move. He tried to stand up and collapsed. His left leg had a life of its own, shaking involuntarily.

"I been shot!" he screamed to his girlfriend Yvonne, but she was more worried about the drugs in her pocket. Explaining them would be tough when the cops showed up.

Years later, with a blend of bewilderment and forgiveness, Harris would recall Yvonne's last words as she ran out the back door, ignoring his pleas for her to stay and help him as he lay bleeding inside his home in the unincorporated Los Nietos area of Whittier.

"I can't," Yvonne yelled back. "I'm on probation."

It was dark out, rainy and cold as Harris waited, alone, for the ambulance to arrive. He looked down at his hip. The bullet had shattered his pelvis. Blood was quickly spreading inside his jeans; the drug money in his pocket was soaked.

The 41-year-old, lifelong gang member was sure the guy who pulled the trigger was a local homeboy from Los Nietos. But how dare a young punk shoot a "veterano" with known ties to the Mexican Mafia?

Brian Harris was no mere rank-and-file gangster. He had paid his dues, first as a member, then a leader of the Canta Ranas - "Singing Frogs" in Spanish - Santa Fe Springs' main gang.

He spent two decades in prison. There, his personal charisma boosted him up the hierarchy of the Mexican Mafia, the secretive prison gang also known as "La Eme."

With the blessing of La Eme's leaders, Harris was elected in 1994 to the rank of "key-holder," overseeing drug sales in gang territories in Santa Fe Springs, the unincorporated Whittier area and, later, the Inland Empire.

Bedside confession

When Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Detective Noel Furniss showed up in Harris' hospital room a few days after the shooting, the seasoned veteran of the department's Operation Safe Streets anti-gang unit knew instinctively this was no ordinary shooting.

Furniss, 50, a 25-year department veteran who uses a friendly, chit-chat approach when interviewing gang members, played to Harris' emotional state. He pulled out some photos, including one that showed the severely bruised face of a 5-year-old boy.

Art "Snappy" Perez, the Los Nietos gang member who shot him, had next gone to Harris' ex-girlfriend's house and beat her young son, Furniss told him.

Harris was infuriated.

Staring at a photo lineup from his hospital bed, Harris drew a circle around a picture and handed it back to Furniss. The photo was of Perez.

"I knew that if I circled the face ... it would be the end of my three decades in the Eme," Harris later wrote. "I knew that I would have just a little time before everyone would find out I told. It's as close as jumping over a bridge."

Furniss believes the shooting was Perez's way of showing Harris he was tough and that his gang, not Santa Fe Springs' Canta Ranas, ran the neighborhood.

"My opinion is that it was a straight-up gang hit," the detective said in a later interview. "The more violent you are, the reputation you'll get is that you control this neighborhood. By shooting a high-ranking Canta Ranas guy, Snappy just boosted his rep by leaps and bounds."

But Perez might have had another motive.

Back in 1992, a faction of La Eme's leadership put a "green light" - a hit order - on Harris for disobeying the gang's order to kill his gangster uncle.

The hit was never carried out. In the end, the carnales were divided: some sided with Harris, some against him.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Enomoto, who prosecuted Perez, said Harris' amiable personality probably helped keep him on La Eme's good side.

"He has people skills," Enomoto said. "Like any organization, if people like you, you have a better chance of getting ahead."

Talking one-on-one, Harris comes off as a genuinely likeable person, the prosecutor said.

"There's a reason he has all those tattoos and has been in prison all those years. But there's also certain amount of charm to him. The man has charisma," Enomoto said.

Short-legged but with a powerfully built upper body, Harris can seem gentle and fun-loving. In middle school, local gang members tagged him "Little Joker." With a thin face and high cheekbones that accentuate his dark brown eyes, he cracks jokes often and does imitations of people he has met.

Whittier Police Department Sgt. Jim Uhl, who arrested Harris in Santa Fe Springs years ago, recalls him as a "nice guy," despite his association with bad people.

But Harris' dark eyes can quickly change to a menacing gaze.

Double-crossed

No sooner was Harris released from the hospital, he was back in prison on a parole violation. Angry at being locked up again after cooperating with detectives, Harris began writing to Yvonne, the ex-girlfriend who left him bleeding on the floor.

He still loved her, he wrote, and he begged her to leave the gang and move with him somewhere else - anywhere else. He wrote about his disillusionment with the Mexican Mafia. And he told her about his plans to testify in court against Perez.

His letters did not stay private.

Unknown to him, Yvonne was sharing Harris' correspondence with his former gangster friends. Now his old Santa Fe Springs homeboys had his hand-written confession that he was turning snitch.

Harris knew nothing of this as he walked out of jail in July 2005. He immediately called Yvonne and asked her to meet him. She agreed to meet at Los Nietos Park.

When Harris drove up, though, instead of seeing Yvonne, there were his old homeboys, armed with guns and knives. They quickly piled into the car and ordered him to drive to some nearby railroad tracks. Harris knew they meant to execute him.

Looking for some way out, he spotted a sheriff's patrol car near Pioneer Boulevard and Slauson Avenue. Harris punched the gas, jostling the car over the tracks, then slammed on the brakes and jumped out.

A confused deputy watched the gangsters run away. All but one.

Harris now knew he could no longer trust Yvonne or his old gang. He could never again step foot in his own hometown without risking his life.

He settled into a San Bernardino hotel and started dealing drugs again while awaiting the start of Perez's attempted murder trial.

Finally, on Sept. 2, 2005, the trial began. Harris was the prosecution's star witness. As he testified about his gang life and Mexican Mafia involvement, a stranger neatly dressed in a suit sat in the courtroom, listening attentively. No one knew him.

He could have been a businessman or college student. But a savvy deputy spotted the man holding a cell phone near his knee while Harris testified. The deputy pointed the man out to Furniss, who promptly confiscated the phone.

On it, Furniss found a four-minute audio recording of Harris' testimony.

The man, 30-year-old Henry Beserra of Murietta, was arrested and later charged with witness intimidation.

As it turned out, Beserra had been sent into the courtroom on orders of Mexican Mafia leaders. He was to record Harris' testimony to prove he was a snitch.

In the parlance of La Eme, Beserra was a "ghost," a gang member or associate who outwardly appears to be an average person but secretly works for the gang.

Now Harris found himself again in the role of star witness - this time at Beserra's trial.

In June 2006, as Beserra, sporting a long-sleeved, button-down shirt and military-style haircut, faced a jury, Harris detailed the role ghosts play in keeping the prison gang connected to the "real world."

"Ghosts are incognito," he testified. "They fit in. They're not recognized as gang members. But they're really into doing things that need to be done for the gang. Ghosts can be car dealers, teachers, students, accountants, barbers."

The jury believed him.

Beserra was convicted of attempting to intimidate Harris and for working for the Mexican Mafia. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Back to jail

While Harris waited for Perez's trial to resume, he returned to San Bernardino and to selling drugs. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught - either by gang members for snitching, or the police for selling drugs.

It happened on May 15, 2006.

Some gang members in the motel where Harris was living cornered him, calling him a snitch and lunging at him with a knife. Harris kicked his attackers and held one arm against his chest to protect himself. Someone stabbed his left arm, tearing through ligaments and leaving a 13-inch cut.

A few days after Harris got out of the hospital, a police officer approached him and asked if he was on parole. The officer searched him and found methamphetamine in his pocket. Again, Harris was sent back in jail, this time to do a four-year stint for drug possession.

On June 30, 2006, a withdrawn, pale-looking Harris - in a blue jail jumpsuit, his left arm in a sling - began testifying against Perez in Norwalk Court.

"I'm testifying so the youngsters can understand the way it used to be," Harris said. "There aren't enough of us O.G.s \ around to teach them how to do things."

The trial lasted a week, with Harris testifying about his gang life in Santa Fe Springs, which he called his "kingdom." For years in the 1990s, he controlled the Mexican Mafia's drug trade in the city, "holding the keys" to it for La Eme, he said.

He got that power in 1994, while incarcerated at California State Prison, Corcoran, where he was put in charge of keeping inmates in his cellblock in line for La Eme. It was at Corcoran that he became a key-holder for La Eme, whose members apparently overlooked his absent father's Irish blood in favor of his mother's Mexican ancestry.

It was the realization of a life-long dream for Harris.

On his first day of seventh grade at Los Nietos Junior High School, Harris picked his destiny. Meeting up with some friends as he walked home, they suddenly turned on him, forcing him into a fight. When it ended, Harris had a bloody nose and a new gang moniker - "Little Joker." He had been jumped into a neighborhood gang.

"I proved that I could hang, taking the punches and the blows," he said, recalling the initiation. "I became a member of the Canta Ranas, bloody nose and all."

During Perez's trial, Enomoto spent hours describing to the jury the intricate rules set down by the Mexican Mafia and sheepishly obeyed by the street gangs.

"Everything in the gang world is upside down. Black is white. Up is down," he told jurors, explaining that after shooting Harris, Perez had yelled out his gang.

"The modern-day criminal is as bold, as open as possible: `It's me, Snappy from Los Nietos.' Shockingly bold," he said. "One thing the defendant never counted on that night is Harris chucking it all away - 30 years of the gang life - and testifying in court."

The prosecutor also wanted to impress on jurors that they were witnessing something extremely rare.

"You could serve on 100 juries and never see a defendant like Harris again," he told them. "He has only known one world and he's abandoned it."

From then on, "to the day he dies," Enomoto said, Harris would be a marked man who "whether in prison, jail, or walking down Imperial Highway, will be looking over his shoulder."

With a California Penal Code book as a prop, the prosecutor continued: "The only code that's going to protect him now is this."

"The Mexican Mafia has a code, but we do too. We don't live by their rules - they live in our world," Enomoto told jurors. "This case is all about a war between Los Nietos and Canta Ranas. And this war is all about drugs. We're talking about thousands of dollars in illegal drug sales in Whittier and Santa Fe Springs. And both gangs are loyal to the Mexican Mafia."

For his part, Harris explained to jurors why he decided to testify. Things were no longer right in La Eme, he said, not like they use to be.

"The door was closed" when Perez fired the shots, he said with a touch of indignation. "There were bullets coming through the door. This guy is supposed to do it man-to-man, with respect."

Finally, nearly two years after the shooting, Perez was convicted of attempted murder. But his sentencing has since been postponed until a defense motion for a new trial is answered. The motion is scheduled to be heard in Norwalk Court on Friday.

Protective custody

Harris spent his 42nd birthday at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where he has his own 6-foot-by-8-foot cell.

"I'm segregated from everybody else. It's never been like that before," he said in a phone interview.

His new life as an informant is not a comfortable one. On clear days, he can see the mountains through a small window. Twice a week, he is led out into a 25-by-25-foot recreation yard.

"I used to be able to call anyone and have $1,000 sent to me. Now I'm with nothing," he said.

The first time Harris was sentenced to jail it was a badge of honor. He was 18 then, busted for stealing credit cards and being under the influence of narcotics.

Harris said he turned that experience into his opportunity to "earn some bones" for the Mexican Mafia, proving his loyalty by stabbing African-American gang inmates. Each time he returned to prison, he became more violent, planning attacks, stockpiling improvised knives.

"I had proven to be depended on, to have orders followed through," he wrote from prison.

For Harris, gaining entry into La Eme was tantamount to being accepted into an Ivy League university. His tutelage included learning the mob's secret code, formulated from the ancient Aztec language of Nahuatl, which La Eme's leaders use to pass orders to underlings.

Passing the words

New La Eme members receive lists of words to study, which are sent from cell to cell by other inmates on fishing line or string, Harris said.

La Eme members must also follow a strict code of personal hygiene. They must get up early, keep their shoes and clothing clean, and must dress as soon as they wake up, said Harris.

From noon to 2 p.m. each day, La Eme members have what Harris called "quiet time." They sit in their cells, studying Nahuatl words, he said. La Eme members also use other picture and number codes to communicate with members on the outside. A dragon, for example, stands for "heroin," a picture of the Aztec sun god is code for "carnal," he said.

"Outside in the yard, we would do a workout," he said. "I'd give them a Nahuatl word and spell it. I can have a conversation in it. We're supposed to learn one word per week. If not, you get disciplined in the yard."

As he rose up in La Eme's ranks, Harris began dreaming of some day becoming a carnal himself. It would be the culmination of his long gang life. As a young gang member, Harris had idolized the Mexican Mafia's leadership, knowing, as he says, that "my destiny was to do for them, 100 percent."

When he was still a young teen living with his grandparents in Santa Fe Springs - they took custody of him because his mother was an alcoholic, Harris said - several of his uncles were gang and Mexican Mafia members.

Harris admired them.

After his initiation into Canta Ranas, he went home and proudly told his uncles, who congratulated him.

"My uncle Steve said, `That's good. Be loyal,"' Harris recalled.

High school for Harris was a place to sell drugs and confront rival gang members. In his senior year, his fed-up grandparents kicked him out. Soon afterward, he quit school. From then on, all of his efforts were focused on becoming a respected gang member.

Some weeks, Harris said, he earned thousands of dollars selling drugs. He spent the money partying. By the age of 41, the pursuit of the gang life had cost him 22 years in jails and prisons. Gang tattoos covered his body.

On the streets, Harris would announce to other gang members that he was a "veterano," a solid gang member who had paid his dues.

Now, in protective custody as a snitch, he dreams of being a free man - free from prison and the gang life - of starting over as a tattoo artist.

But his reality is much harsher.

Former friends now spit on him and call him names when they see him, Harris said. He spends a lot of time thinking about what he will do when he is released in 2009.

Furniss, too, hopes Harris can some day start over.

"He's seen all his friends and fellow gang members incarcerated or killed. He wants to make a better life for himself. With some help like relocation, he'll be a productive citizen," the detective said.

But on the streets where Harris grew up, word about him spread quickly. His old Canta Ranas associates have no sympathy.

One sunny fall afternoon, a slender Santa Fe Springs gangster known as "Fernie" answered his door in shorts, his gang's name emblazoned across his chest.

A reporter mentioned Harris' name, and Fernie smiled.

Once, Harris and Fernie's older brother were close friends, he said, but that's over now.

"He knows better than to come around here," said Fernie.

Indeed, Harris does.

In a letter from prison, he wrote:

"I threw my life in the trash can. I don't regret it, but I have to always look over my shoulder now. There is a major contract out on my life. The Mafia will honor the person who kills me - he will earn an invisible Medal of Honor."

Good stuff ese Swanson.

pretty interesting read

http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/no-longer-calling-the-shots/article_f18c1e16-784d-11e0-8ddc-001cc4c002e0.html

Ruben Pinuelas was a rising star in the criminal underworld. By the time he turned 24, he'd left his small gang in El Centro behind, got busted for auto theft, stabbed an inmate and moved on to bigger things: running a prison yard for the Mexican Mafia.

His reign at California State Prison, Corcoran's Substance Abuse Treatment Facility lasted only a year. But it was the bloodiest year in the institution's history. The young leader had his hand in at least 10 attempted murders, and officials say they averaged a stabbing a day while Pinuelas controlled Facility C.

"The gang culture is very, very violent," Kings County Gang Task Force Supervisor Andrew Meyer said. "They rule through fear, violence and intimidation. When they wind up in prison, they all form up together under a unified ruling body that controls their yard."

This unified body is known as a mesa, or table. It's a group of respected gang members who control the flow of money and narcotics in and out of the yard. And the head of a table, the "shot caller," gets a percentage from every transaction.

"The person running the yard has a lot of power," Meyer said. "He makes money without ever lifting a finger. Contraband goes for 10 times street value inside a prison. So these guys end up very wealthy."

People v. Superior Court (Sosa)

[S.F. No. 24311. Supreme Court of California. July 8, 1982.]
THE PEOPLE, Petitioner, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Respondent; ALFRED RICHARD SOSA et al., Real Parties in Interest

(Opinion by Broussard, J., with Bird, C. J., Mosk, Richardson, Newman and Kaus, JJ., concurring.)

COUNSEL

George Deukmejian, Attorney General, Robert H. Philibosian, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Arnold O. Overoye, Assistant Attorney General, Eddie T. Keller and Gary A. Binkerd, Deputy Attorneys General, for Petitioner.

John K. Van de Kamp, District Attorney (Los Angeles), Harry B. Sondheim and Arnold T. Guminski, Deputy District Attorneys, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Petitioner.

No appearance for Respondent.

Kenneth M. Wells, Public Defender, Ernest F. Winters, Winters & Karabinus, William J. Owen, de la Vergne & McMurtry, James V. de la Vergne and Katherine Mader for Real Parties in Interest.

OPINION

BROUSSARD, J.

The People seek review pursuant to Penal Code section 1538.5, subdivision (o), of a trial court order suppressing the [31 Cal. 3d 886] statements and anticipated testimony of witnesses Gonzales, Lara, and Maddox in the pending trial of defendants (real parties in interest) for conspiracy to murder and the murder of Ellen Delia. fn. 1 Our opinion upholding the trial court follows closely the reasoning of the opinion prepared by Justice Blease for the Court of Appeal.

Suspecting that defendant Michael Delia and other members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang were implicated in the killing of Ellen Delia, Monterey Park police began surveillance of the Delia residence. When Armando Varela and defendant Alfred Sosa drove to that residence, the surveilling officers detained them, discovered a gun in the car, and arrested Varela and Sosa. The trial court found, however, and the People now concede that the detention and arrest were illegal, a subterfuge to permit the police to question persons visiting the Delia residence.

Officers of a special Prison Gang Task Force interrogated Varela over a period of five days, ignoring his request that questioning cease until he could consult an attorney. Finally, when a former gang member told Varela that the gang planned to kill him, Varela agreed to provide information to the police. After further interrogation Varela indicated that Gonzales was involved in the Ellen Delia killing and showed the police where Gonzales lived. The police then prepared statements for Varela's signature and used them to obtain a warrant to search Gonzales' residence. The trial court found that the warrant -- the product of the illegal arrest and interrogation of Varela -- was unlawful.

Carrying the invalid warrant, the police broke into Gonzales' home and arrested Gonzales. On the way to the police station, one officer threatened to harass Gonzales and his family unless Gonzales agreed to cooperate with the police; on booking, another officer attempted to interrogate Gonzales in violation of the arrestee's Miranda rights. The following day, Gonzales agreed to assist the police investigation of the Delia killing.

The People do not contest the trial court's finding that witness Gonzales was arrested and his home searched pursuant to a search warrant [31 Cal. 3d 887] based entirely on the illegally obtained statement of Armando Varela. They argue, however, that the link between Gonzales' statements and anticipated testimony and the illegal conduct is sufficiently attenuated to dissipate the taint of the illegality. fn. 2 The People also seek an opportunity to show that attenuation occurred subsequent to the conclusion of the section 1538.5 proceedings.

The trial court, following extensive hearings, found that no attenuation occurred -- that the statements and anticipated testimony of Gonzales were the direct and suppressible fruit of the illegal police entry into and search of his residence. We agree with that conclusion and consequently approve its order barring use of those statements and testimony. [1a] With regard to the People's request to make an additional showing of attenuation, we explain that the People may further litigate that issue only by complying with Penal Code section 1538.5, subdivision (j). That subdivision permits the People either to reopen a suppression ruling at trial if they have additional evidence and can show good cause why it was not presented at the suppression hearing, or to challenge a ruling on appeal under section 1538.5, subdivision (o).

1. Summary of facts and proceeding below.

We state the facts in the manner most favorable to the trial court's determination (People v. Martin (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 687, 692 [108 Cal. Rptr. 809, 511 P.2d 1161]), resolving conflicts in the evidence in favor of the findings below (see People v. Rios (1976) 16 Cal. 3d 351, 357 [128 Cal. Rptr. 5, 546 P.2d 293]; People v. Lawler (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 156, 160 [107 Cal. Rptr. 13, 507 P.2d 621]).

On February 17, 1977, there was a statewide meeting of the Prison Gang Task Force, a group of state and local officers investigating the activities of the Mexican Mafia and other prison gangs. Sergeant John Helvin of the Los Angeles police told the group that Michael Delia, a resident of Monterey Park, was suspected of the murder of Robert [31 Cal. 3d 888] Lewis. Officer Robert Morrill of the Monterey Park Police Department attended the meeting.

Ellen Delia, Michael's wife, was killed on the evening of February 17. The next day her body was discovered near the Sacramento airport. Suspecting that Michael was involved in this killing as well, Monterey Park police commenced surveillance of the Delia residence.

In the evening of February 20, defendant Sosa drove to the Delia residence and parked in the driveway. Armando Varela was a passenger in the car. Officer Joe Delia (coincidentally, a cousin of Michael Delia) testified that he detained the driver for making an illegal left turn, and radioed for back-up assistance, and that Officer Morrill arrived shortly in response to the call. Neighbors testified, however, that Sosa did not make an illegal turn and that both police cars arrived simultaneously.

Officer Delia arrested Sosa for failing to present identification, looked in the car, and saw a revolver. The officers then arrested Sosa and Varela for robbery and took them to the Monterey Park police station for booking. Although robberies had occurred in the area, the record does not provide an objective basis for believing that Sosa and Varela committed them.

While booking Sosa and Varela, Officer Morrill attempted to question them. Sosa refused to talk to Morrill, but Varela acknowledged that he was on parole. Morrill then asked Special Agent Ricardo Minjares of the California Department of Corrections to look into placing a parole hold on the arrestees. fn. 3

Minjares arrived about midnight and questioned Varela without advising Varela of his constitutional rights. The next day Officer O'Connor of the Monterey Park Police Department read Varela a statement of constitutional rights; Varela replied that he wanted to talk to an attorney and O'Connor terminated the questioning. He did not assist Varela in obtaining counsel.

Later the same day, February 21, Detective Steed of the Sacramento Police Department arrived in Monterey Park. Although Varela had invoked [31 Cal. 3d 889] his right to consult counsel and had not yet obtained counsel, Steed again read Varela the statement of constitutional rights and requested a waiver. When Steed said that Varela was not a suspect in the Ellen Delia killing, Varela agreed to waive his Miranda rights. Varela related his activities on the day of the Ellen Delia killing, but refused to answer further questions.

Steed then summoned Officer Morrill to speak to Varela. Morrill told Varela that he was aware of the activities of the Mexican Mafia and of Varela's membership, but Varela refused to answer further questions.

On February 22, Special Agent Minjares returned to talk to Varela. He asked Varela who sponsored his membership in the Mexican Mafia and whether Varela was afraid; Varela denied knowledge of the prison gang.

On February 23, the district attorney declined to prosecute Varela on any charges arising from the February 20 detention or the subsequent impound search of the car on the ground that the detention, arrest, and search were probably illegal. Minjares then arranged for a parole hold to prevent Varela from being discharged, and Varela was transferred from Monterey Park to the Los Angeles County jail.

On February 25, Officer Steve Simonian, a member of the Prison Gang Task Force and Gilbert Avila, task force coordinator, arranged for a former Mexican Mafia member, Carlos Ortega, to talk to Varela. Ortega spoke to Varela of the advantages of leaving the Mexican Mafia, and he said the gang had a contract on Varela's life. Ortega then introduced Avila, who discussed Varela's situation and parole hold. The police testified that Varela then agreed to cooperate with the investigation, saying that he was tired of Mexican Mafia activities, feared for his own safety and that of the woman he was living with, and realized that because of the parole hold he would not be released unless he agreed to cooperate.

After Varela agreed to assist the investigation, the police returned him to Monterey Park and resumed questioning. Interrogation, primarily by Officers Helvin and Ostrum of the Los Angeles Police Department, continued for most of the day of February 27, and four to six hours on February 28. During this interrogation, Varela said that Gonzales [31 Cal. 3d 890] had weapons in his El Monte residence which might have been used in the murders under investigation.

On March 1, Helvin and Varela drove around Los Angeles County and located several residences, including that of Gonzales. Helvin prepared statements for Varela's signature and obtained a search warrant for Gonzales' house.

Helvin and six other policemen went to the Gonzales residence at 7:05 a.m. on March 3 to serve the warrant. After announcing his presence and receiving no response, Helvin kicked down the front door. As he entered he saw Gonzales going toward the bathroom carrying balloons. Assuming the balloons contained heroin, Helvin arrested and handcuffed Gonzales. Before leaving the Gonzales residence, Helvin left his business card with Mrs. Gonzales.

Following the arrest, Investigator Alan Price, a Monterey Park police officer, drove Gonzales to the Los Angeles City jail. During that ride, Price asked Gonzales "is it going to be, Eddie, every three months the police come, serve a search warrant at your house, kick down your door, terrorize your children, scare the heck out of your wife and take you away in shackles ...." Gonzales replied with the incriminating comment, "I'll have to do the time." At this point he had not been advised of his Miranda rights, and in fact was not advised of those rights until about 30 hours after the arrest.

During the booking process, Helvin also attempted to elicit statements from Gonzales without advising him of his constitutional rights.

Officer Price testified that during the police search of the Gonzales residence and arrest of Gonzales, Mrs. Gonzales appeared "terrified" and their children were "scared, screaming, crying." His statement to Gonzales while driving to the station, in which he spoke of police action that would "terrorize your children, scare the heck out of your wife ..." lends support to this description. As soon as booking was completed, Gonzales phoned his wife; the following day she phoned Helvin and said Gonzales wanted to speak to him. Helvin immediately went to Gonzales and read him a statement of constitutional rights; Gonzales agreed to waive his rights and to talk to Helvin of the Ellen Delia killing. [31 Cal. 3d 891]

Gonzales testified before the Sacramento County Grand Jury, which returned an indictment asserting that Gonzales and defendants conspired to murder Ellen Delia and that Gonzales and Sosa carried out that plan. Defendants were arrested, and moved to suppress the statements and anticipated testimony of Gonzales, Lara, and Maddox. After hearings which extended over a year and a half, the trial court granted the motion.

The trial court concluded, first, that the detention and arrest of Sosa and Varela were illegal, a subterfuge to permit the police to question persons going to the Delia residence. It stated that "[i]t cannot seriously be contended that there was any element of good faith in the stop. It was made without probable cause for investigatory purposes only."

Next, the court reasoned that Varela's statements to the police were the unlawful product of the illegal detention and arrest. To escape the original taint, the court explained, the statements must be shown to be voluntary. Varela's statements could not be considered voluntary, both because they were the product of intense police interrogation and because they were obtained in violation of his Miranda rights. fn. 4

Since the Varela statements formed the basis for the warrant to search the Gonzales residence, the trial court concluded that the warrant, and consequently the search, was illegal. The People, however, maintained that Gonzales' statements to the police were voluntary, and free from the taint of the illegal entry and search. They relied on the testimony of Helvin that Gonzales agreed to become a witness for the state "because his family was tired of his activities; his family was tired of the time he had spent in prisons, his wife, particularly; he was concerned because his children were reaching the age where they were now beginning to understand what some of his activities were all about and the fact that he had been away, and where he was; he was tired of having the organization, the group come to him every time they needed something done." [31 Cal. 3d 892]

It is apparent, however, that the trial court did not credit his testimony. The court pointedly noted that, with the exception of the Sacramento law enforcement officers, "the testimony elicited during these proceedings shows a remarkable lack of recall by the witnesses, or more specifically the selected lapse of memory in certain key areas." It also specifically found that Varela's statement was the result of intense pressure by police interrogators following the initial illegal arrest, a finding which implies that the officers did not testify candidly concerning Varela. As noted by Justice Blease in the Court of Appeal opinion below, "Since the trial court disbelieved the Varela reasons and Helvin, who was present when Varela turned, offered substantially the same reasons for Gonzales' turning, the trial court must be read as disbelieving Helvin's testimony."

[2] Apart from doubts respecting Helvin's testimony, the record contains other substantial evidence supporting the trial court's determination that Gonzales' actions were not voluntary. We have recounted earlier the circumstances of the police entry into his residence and Officer Price's threat that unless Gonzales changed his conduct the police would return every three months, "serve a search warrant at your house, kick down your door, terrorize your children, scare the heck out of your wife and take you away in shackles." We noted also Gonzales' confinement and interrogation for more than a day without being advised of his constitutional rights. The trial court reasonably inferred that Gonzales' decision to cooperate followed so closely upon these events as to be the product of such police misconduct, not a voluntary act. fn. 5

2. United States v. Ceccolini does not require the admission of Gonzales' statements or anticipated testimony.

Despite the trial court's findings, the People argue that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Ceccolini (1978) 435 U.S. 268 [55 L. Ed. 2d 268, 98 S. Ct. 1054] requires admission of Gonzales' statements and testimony. They point in particular to [31 Cal. 3d 893] the court's declaration that "the exclusionary rule should be invoked with much greater reluctance where the claim is based on a causal relationship between a constitutional violation and the discovery of a live witness than when a similar claim is advanced to support the suppression of an inanimate object." (P. 280 [55 L.Ed.2d at p. 279].)

In Ceccolini a police officer on a short break went behind a customer counter in defendant's flower shop to talk with the officer's friend, a shop employee. During the conversation the officer noticed an envelope lying behind the counter. Money protruded from the envelope. The officer examined the envelope and found that it also contained betting slips. The officer reported this information to his superiors, who in turn reported it to an FBI agent investigating suspected gambling operations in the flower shop. Four months later the agent interviewed the flower shop employee, who agreed to testify against defendant.

The trial court suppressed the employee's testimony because she came to the government's attention as the result of an illegal search. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the connection between the lawless police conduct and the challenged testimony was sufficiently attenuated to dissipate the taint of the illegal search.

Rejecting the government's argument that witness testimony should be admitted regardless of the proximity between the testimony and the illegality, the court announced an attenuation analysis designed to determine whether the purposes behind the exclusionary rule are served by suppression of the witness' testimony. In performing this analysis, the court emphasized as one consideration the degree of free will exercised by the witness because "[t]he greater the willingness of the witness to freely testify, the greater the likelihood that he or she will be discovered by legal means and, concomitantly, the smaller the incentive to conduct an illegal search to discover the witness." (P. 276 [55 L.Ed.2d at p. 277].) The court also required a close, direct link between the illegality and the evidence before suppressing testimony because suppression disables the witness from testifying about material facts and because the cost of such suppression is high in terms of distorting the outcome of the trial.

Applying this analysis, the court found that the evidence overwhelmingly indicated that the witness' testimony in Ceccolini was a product of the witness' free will rather than a result of the illegal search of the flower shop. The court also noted the substantial four-month interlude [31 Cal. 3d 894] between the illegal conduct and the FBI's interview of the witness, and observed that the officer's search was not made with the intent of finding either evidence of or testimony about illegal gambling. The court thus reversed the suppression order because "[a]pplication of the exclusionary rule ... could not have the slightest deterrent effect ..." and "[t]he cost of ... silencing [the employee] is too great ...." (Id., at p. 280 [55 L.Ed.2d at p. 279].)

Nothing in Ceccolini mandates reversal of the trial court's ruling in this case. Ceccolini does not diminish the government's burden of proving attenuation, a burden which, under the present circumstances, required the People to prove the voluntariness of Gonzales' statements. As we explained previously, the prosecution failed to surmount that burden. While in Ceccolini the evidence "overwhelmingly" indicated that the witness volunteered the challenged testimony, here the record leads to the opposite conclusion. Gonzales was a suspect fn. 6 whose home had been illegally entered with the intention of finding evidence against him. He had been arrested, charged with a crime, held in police custody and repeatedly interrogated. There was evidence that he was implicitly threatened with more of the same. The factual setting of the present case thus supports the implicit finding of the trial court that the cooperation of Gonzales was involuntary, a finding which distinguishes Ceccolini from the case at bar.

The conduct of the police investigation in the present case further distinguishes Ceccolini. As Justice Janes observed in his concurring opinion in the Court of Appeal, "[c]ompared with the egregious conduct here of Sergeant Helvin, the lead and arresting officer, Ceccolini is a tame case .... There is no such extensive and oppressive police misconduct as that which stigmatized the actions of the officers in the present case."

3. [1b] The People's right to reopen a suppression ruling is governed by section 1538.5, subdivision (j).

The People finally argue that the trial court erred in suppressing Gonzales' anticipated trial testimony, since the implied finding Gonzales [31 Cal. 3d 895] will not ultimately testify on his own free will "is necessarily an exercise in sheer guesswork." They speculate that intervening events "may well transform Gonzales into a most willing and enthusiastic ally of the prosecution," and further suggest that "[t]here [is] no reason why the claim cannot be litigated pretrial, as in the present case, reserving only for trial resolution where appropriate the question of the witness' willingness and motivations in testifying as a foundational inquiry and condition precedent to proffering the witness' testimony (Evid. Code, §§ 402, 403, 405)."

The People do not make any showing that there are or will be such "intervening events" and did not avail themselves of the extraordinarily lengthy section 1538.5 proceedings to show that some act of free will occurred subsequent to the events reviewed here. Thus their argument reduces to the claim that the section 1538.5 procedure is inadequate to the task of adjudicating an issue of attenuation involving trial testimony and that the trial court cannot rule on the issue before the moment arrives for the introduction of the testimony.

We disagree with the People's contention. Section 1538.5 provides the method under California practice for determining whether evidence, including testimonial evidence, should be suppressed as the product of an illegal search or seizure. The issue of attenuation is frequently litigated and resolved in such proceedings. (See, e.g., Lockridge v. Superior Court (1970) 3 Cal. 3d 166 [89 Cal. Rptr. 731, 474 P.2d 683].) As Justice Blease observed below, "[t]here is no substantive or procedural warrant for the piecing off of the attenuation issue from the Fourth Amendment claims. The issue of attenuation is but one side of the coin of derivative illegality."

INJUNCTION FUNCTION: Prosecutors say the gang injunction is necessary to keep Raymond Macias, an alleged tax collector for the Mexican Mafia, under check. Defense attorneys claim gang members are getting put away just fine without any injunction.

Story by Nick Welsh
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Over the past three weeks, attorneys on both sides of the proposed gang injunction have been landing solid points during the trial. Closing arguments are scheduled to take place in Judge Colleen Sterne’s courtroom later this week.

On Tuesday, Santa Barbara Police Detective Gary Siegel acknowledged that between November 2010 and August 2013, there was no evidence that Francisco Anaya had been involved in any criminal or gang-related activity. Anaya’s defense attorney William Makler noted that his client, an alleged Eastside gang member and one of the 11 defendants specifically named by City Hall in its injunction lawsuit, has been employed for the past seven years at Westmont College. He’s argued that his client is no longer active in the gang life and that he certainly doesn’t qualify as one of “the worst of the worst,” the phrase used by Police Chief Cam Sanchez to describe those named in the injunction when it was first proposed three-and-a-half years ago. During that time, Anaya, who still has gang tattoos, had only one minor citation when he refused a police order to stop while walking past a fight that occurred near his home. Anaya denied being involved in the fight, and the police have no evidence to contradict him.

When the injunction was first proposed, 30 individuals were named, but two weeks before the trial began, only 11 names remained. The missing 19 people are now either serving lengthy sentences in state or federal prisons or have dropped out of gang life. Makler expressed surprise that his client was not among those removed from the list and is hoping his client’s clean record will persuade the judge to do so.

Likewise, defense attorney Michael Hanley, with the Public Defender’s office, who represents Christian “Tweety” Botello, questioned the accuracy of police maps purporting to show the extent of gang activity within city limits between 2010 and 2013. While cross-examining Det. Siegel, the department’s foremost gang expert, Hanley established that the dramatic splatter of dots on a map denoting gang incidents failed to distinguish between gang-involved acts (those done specifically to further a street gang) and those that were committed by gang members but not necessarily part of gang activity. This would include, he argued, parole and curfew violations. By lumping such minor “gang involved” incidents with “gang related,” Hanley suggested, the Police Department created a gang-incident map that visually exaggerated the true extent of the gang problem. Defense attorneys readily concede that Santa Barbara criminal street gangs exist in Santa Barbara, but they contend the injunction is not necessary, because gang crime rates have been dropping. They believe this proves that traditional methods of law enforcement are handling the problem and that the gang injunction is an unnecessary and extraordinary method.

Combating this picture was prosecuting attorney Hilary Dozer, who emphasized the role played by the Mexican Mafia, a prison-based gang notorious for brutality and effectiveness within Santa Barbara gang circles. Under questioning from Dozer, Siegel outlined in some detail the transformation of Ray Macias in 1997 from a low-level street hoodlum with a weakness for heroin affiliated with the Eastside Krazies to the Mexican Mafia’s chief tax collector for all of Santa Barbara County. Macias is currently on trial in Santa Maria for torture and extortion involving a Lompoc drug dealer who failed to pay “taxes” to the Mexican Mafia. During a search of his home in connection with that arrest, Siegel said, police found Western Union receipts from Macias to Michael Moreno, a known Mexican Mafia leader now serving time in state prison. According to Siegel, Macias wired money into accounts controlled by Moreno. Macias has insisted that he did not direct or approve the torture that took place, that he was not present when it started, and that when he arrived, he ordered it stopped. His defense attorney noted that the witnesses against Macias have all received reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony.

In recent years, Macias also played a leadership role with the nonprofit Palabra, made up of former gang members who counseled active members against violent behavior. Law enforcement has expressed deep concern over the group because Palabra has expressly not urged individuals to renounce gangs, but instead to keep a lid on violent actions. As gang violence has declined in recent years, Palabra has taken partial credit, explaining that its members were showing up at hot spots and successfully putting out fires before they ignited.

Whatever the merits of this claim, it dovetails into the prosecution’s theory that gang violence has dropped throughout Santa Barbara because the Mexican Mafia ordered it. The most celebrated prosecution witness, Arthur Nevarez, whom the District Attorney’s office dramatically called Mister X, is a former Eastside leader looking at 87 years to life. He testified the Mexican Mafia ordered gang activity reduced pending resolution of the gang injunction trial. The Mexican Mafia, he testified, has recently “claimed” Santa Barbara, meaning drug dealers in gang territories have to pay taxes or risk violent retribution. In exchange for Nevarez’s testimony, charges of torture and extortion were dropped. If those dropped charges were still alleged in the trial, defense witnesses contend, Nevarez would have no hope of ever getting out of prison.

Before closing arguments, the defense put on seven witnesses who live in one of the two major gang “safety zones.” All testified that they do not live in fear of gang violence and that gangs do not constitute the “intolerable nuisance” that, by law, Judge Sterne must find in order to grant the injunction. Likewise, the defense presented a UCSB professor who testified that gang injunctions have only limited benefits for the affected communities and then only for short durations. According to scholarly peer-reviewed studies, gang injunctions have been linked with crime reductions of up to 11 percent in some communities, but according to the defense, those reductions do not last.

Raymond Macias seen above.