Mexican Mafia Member Disputes Conspiracy

An admitted member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang testified Wednesday that a 1991 attack against him at the Los Angeles County Jail--in which he was stabbed 26 times--wasn’t part of any murder conspiracy hatched by the group as federal prosecutors contend.

Rather, testified Salvador “Mon” Buenrostro, he was attacked in a lawyers interview room at the jail on July 16, 1991, by defendant and reputed mafia godfather Benjamin “Topo” Peters and another member of the group because of a personal dispute with Peters that began several months earlier.

Buenrostro said he had refused a request by Peters to call his mother for him. Buenrostro said he had telephone privileges and could easily make such calls.

But when Peters asked him to make the call, Buenrostro said he refused.

“I didn’t have the time,” he said. “I was serving coffee [to inmates at breakfast] and it was too damned early [to make the call].”

Buenrostro was stabbed by Peters and alleged Mexican Mafia member Rene “Boxer” Enriquez, who used crudely made knives. Peters admitted his role in the attack and is serving life at Pelican Bay State Prison for that incident and a 1980 murder conviction.

Federal prosecutors contend that the attack on Buenrostro occurred because he allegedly caused dissension within Eme, as the prison gang is commonly called, and that he had “disrespected” Joe “Pegleg” Morgan, one of Eme’s founders.

Although Peters pleaded guilty in state court to the attack, he is now charged with criminal conspiracy to murder Buenrostro under federal racketeering statutes. Peters and the other 12 suspected members and associates of the Mexican Mafia are charged with murder, extortion and other threats of violence in trying to extend the prison gang’s influence.

Buenrostro, now incarcerated at Pelican Bay, spent less than 15 minutes on the witness stand, chattily answering defense questions. Shown a photo and asked if the person shown was Peters, Buenrostro replied, “That’s me. I’m better looking.”

That brought laughter from jurors and others in the highly guarded courtroom in the Edward Roybal Federal Building.