Witness Describes Joining Prison Gang

In the midst of an otherwise uneventful first month of trial for 13 reputed members and associates of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, convicted murderer Johnny Torres provided the first hint of the dramatic testimony that is expected in this case.

Unlike the law enforcement types in business suits who have testified so far, Torres, wearing a sweater, came to court and candidly spoke about his violent past, one that included ripping off drug dealers, assaults, robberies and murder.

Now serving a 15-year-to-life prison sentence for second-degree murder, he said he joined the Mexican Mafia in 1979 because he was the kind of thug often enlisted by the Eme--the Spanish word for the letter M, and the name by which the Mexican Mafia is commonly called on the streets.

“I have the perfect resume for anyone who wants to be a member of the Mexican Mafia,” Torres, 38, boasted.

Torres’ testimony in early December was the first insider account presented by federal prosecutors of how the secretive prison gang operates. The Feds are, for the first time, using racketeering statutes against a prison gang, alleging that the Mexican Mafia is using murder and extortion to control drug trafficking and other illicit activities from behind bars.

When the trial resumes Jan. 7 after a hiatus for the holidays, the government is expected to play a video of a March 27, 1994, meeting in a Southland hotel where some of the defendants met, allegedly to discuss Eme business.

That, coupled with wiretaps and secret recordings of other meetings and prison visits, will prove that the Mexican Mafia is indeed an illegal crime syndicate, federal prosecutors say.

The key government witness, who is expected to add context and explain the significance of the tapes and recordings, is Ernest “Chuco” Castro, a former Eme member who has agreed to testify against his former cronies. He was present for many of the meetings.

Prosecutors, however, have been tight-lipped about when Castro will take the witness stand. Security is a major concern for many involved in the case, especially when it comes to the government’s premier witness. It is known that Castro is in a witness-protection program, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Concerns about security also extend to the 13 defendants who are shackled to the chairs during court proceedings. One defendant, Ruben “Tupi” Hernandez, the reputed head of a rival faction within the prison gang, was stabbed by several of his co-defendants earlier this year and is now being held at a different federal lockup.

In preparation for Castro’s anticipated testimony, more than 20 witnesses, most of them members of various federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, have been called since the trial began Nov. 20 to lay the foundation of the government’s case.

They testified in sometimes bureaucratic language about their roles in videotaping the hotel meetings, placing tape-recording devices on Castro so he could secretly record conversations, and monitoring prison visits between some of the defendants and their relatives. Some of the defense attorneys, who speak Spanish, went so far as to test some of the prosecution’s witnesses on their claims that they understand calo, a form of colloquial street Spanish.

Torres was the first witness to flesh out the nature of the Mexican Mafia for the jury.

In and out of youth camps and prisons since the mid-1970s, Torres testified that he had wanted to be a member of the Mexican Mafia since he was a teenager.

“Why?” asked Assistant U.S. Atty. Lisa Lench, the lead prosecutor.

“For the prestige and fear [Eme members] held over the neighborhoods,” Torres replied.

He said he stayed out of harm’s way with the Mafia by sharing with it the profits he stole from neighborhood drug dealers on the Eastside. He also testified that he met some Eme members while in prison, among them Benjamin “Topo” Peters, a reputed Eme godfather and a defendant.

In 1979, Torres testified, Joe “Pegleg” Morgan, a Mexican Mafia veteran who died of cancer last year, told him that he had been voted in as a member of the Eme.

It was Morgan, Torres said, who explained the group’s guidelines:

* Never cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

* Never show cowardice.

* Never cause dissension within the group.

* Eme members cannot be homosexuals.

But two years later, Torres said, he grew disillusioned with the group. He said he knew he was out of Eme when several members tried to kill him in 1983. “I didn’t have a say about it,” he testified.

That incident prompted him to change his ways and renounce his violent past, he said.

When it was the defense attorneys’ turn to cross-examine Torres, some could barely conceal their disgust for him.

Lawyer Morton Boren, representing defendant Randy “Cowboy” Therrien, derisively muttered loudly enough at one point for some courtroom spectators to hear him. In his cross-examination, Boren asked Torres whether he was trying to make amends for his past crimes.

“You wanted to be a Dudley Do-Right?” Boren asked, evoking laughter in the courtroom.

The judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, told Boren to stop being funny.

Several defense attorneys focused on how Torres became a government witness against the defendants, pointing out that he had written three times to U.S. Atty. Nora M. Manella offering his services.

What did he expect in exchange for his cooperation, the lawyers wanted to know.

“Only a letter” from prosecutors saying he cooperated, Torres answered several times.

Torres acknowledged that he is eligible for parole in several years, and defense attorneys through their questions hinted to jurors that Torres, who was denied parole in 1990, was merely looking out for himself.

When attorney Jay Lichtman, who is representing defendant Raymond “Huero Shy” Shryock, asked Torres about a manuscript of poems and essays he wrote in prison, Torres tried to deflect the questions with quips.

When Lichtman repeatedly read a passage from “When Blood Speaks,” in which Torres talked about the inmates’ “art of lying,” Torres shot back, “Is that your favorite poem?”

As Lichtman painstakingly went over other sections of the manuscript, Torres quipped, “I take it you’ll be buying my book as well, right?”

Lichtman ignored the remark, which drew a rebuke from the judge.

Torres ended two days of testimony without prosecutor Lench asking him any questions to undo the defense’s sometimes caustic cross-examination.

The fact that security is also a consideration for the jury was clear two weeks ago when news reporters and spectators were barred from the courtroom as an unidentified juror was dismissed from the panel. Later in the day, transcripts of the court session involving the juror were sealed.

Later, it was learned that the dismissed juror was the same man who, during opening statements in November, presented the judge with letters from his employer and doctor in an attempt to be excused from jury service. At that time, the judge refused to excuse him.

With that juror’s dismissal, 19 jurors and alternates remain.