Gang Leader Waged War on Foes, Jury Told

While he talked about bringing peace to Los Angeles’ warring Latino street gangs, reputed Mexican Mafia leader Mariano Martinez waged a ruthless campaign of murder and mayhem against those who defied his authority, a federal prosecutor charged in federal court Wednesday.

In her closing argument before the jury, Assistant U.S. Atty. Susan Barna accused Martinez, 42, of orchestrating the murders of three men in a Montebello auto body shop in 1998 and ordering hits on at least 10 others.

The trial, which began in October, is the first death penalty case prosecuted in Los Angeles federal court since 1950.

Martinez, a beefy man who shaves his head and sports a large mustache, is charged with running a drug-related racketeering enterprise, one of more than 40 crimes that Congress made punishable by death in 1994.

Barna described Martinez as the highest-ranking Mexican Mafia leader in the Los Angeles area, reporting to the gang’s so-called godfather, Benjamin Peters, who is serving a life term at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California.

Martinez’s lawyers will present their version of events today. At the outset of the trial, they denied that he was responsible for the Montebello murders.

According to Barna, Martinez and his associates extorted “taxes” from scores of neighborhood street gangs throughout the Los Angeles area, usually a percentage of their drug profits. Those who balked were “green-lighted,” meaning they were targeted for attacks on the street or behind bars, where they invariably found themselves thrown in with hardened Mexican Mafia members.

In telephone wiretaps played by prosecutors during the trial, jurors could hear Martinez issue green lights on numerous targets, Barna said.

The most serious allegations against Martinez involved the slayings in November 1998 at the American Performance body shop on Olympic Boulevard in Montebello.

At the time, Martinez was involved in a bitter power struggle with archrival John Turscak, another Mexican Mafia leader. Turscak has admitted to trying to murder Martinez earlier in the year.

On the afternoon of Nov. 19, a member of Martinez’s organization trailed Richard Serrano, a reputed drug dealer and close associate of Turscak, to the Montebello body shop.

After he was notified, Martinez got on the phone and directed a crew of assassins to the establishment, giving orders to kill Serrano along with any witnesses, Barna told the jury. She cited phone company records showing a flurry of calls among Martinez and his crew.

The first person to die was Jose Martin Gutierrez, 33, an unsuspecting workman who had just finished repairing a wall outside the garage.

Serrano, 34, was cornered inside an office and shot to death while on his knees, a coroner’s expert testified. Alongside Serrano’s body, police found the blood-soaked body of Enrique Delgadillo, 41, another innocent bystander. He was shot at point-blank range.

The two suspected gunmen, Gerardo Jacobo, 20, and Mario Alfred Castillo, 21, were indicted with Martinez and 40 other reputed Mexican Mafia members in 1999. If approval is given by U.S. Atty, Gen. Janet Reno or her successor, they too could face the death penalty when they go on trial later this year.

Testimony linking Martinez to the slayings came from his onetime protege, Max Torvisco, 24, the prosecution’s star witness.

Torvisco, who served as Martinez’s right-hand man, testified that Martinez personally directed the killings from a nearby location, issuing orders over a walkie-talkie.

Martinez’s lawyers have accused Torvisco of lying to save his skin. Torvisco, who negotiated a plea agreement with prosecutors, has admitted ordering more than 100 assaults and murders. Martinez’s lawyers also have said that if their client committed violent acts, they were in self-defense.

400 Recorded Phone Conversations

Among the nearly 400 secretly recorded telephone conversations played for the jury were many in which Martinez talked about his “peace program,” an effort to end drive-by shootings among Los Angeles’ Latino youth gangs. The program, Barna told jurors, was “disingenuous.”

“In the same calls that the defendant talked about peace, he talked about killing people,” she said. The program’s real purpose, she argued, was to generate more money for the Mexican Mafia: The less time the street gangs spent shooting at each other, the more time they could devote to selling illicit drugs, which translated into more “tax” collections for the Mexican Mafia.

Not since 1950 has any death penalty case been tried in Los Angeles federal court, according to a check of newspaper records. In that year, Tomoya Kawakita was sentenced to die after he was convicted of treason for beating and torturing American prisoners of war who were forced to work in Japanese munitions plants during World War II. The sentence was never carried out and years later Kawakita was given a presidential pardon.

The year 2001 could see a dramatic shift. Atty. Gen. Reno has authorized local prosecutors to seek the death penalty in three cases scheduled for trial in coming months.

One case involves another Mexican Mafia member, Charles Woody, 29, of Whittier, who is accused of killing one person and conspiring to murder several others, including Martinez.

Also facing a death penalty trial is federal prison inmate Roy C. Green, 42, who is accused of fatally stabbing a guard and wounding four others at the Lompoc penitentiary in 1997.

The third pending case is against Buford O. Furrow Jr., the avowed white supremacist charged with murdering a Filipino American mail carrier after wounding five people during a shooting rampage at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.

In addition, eight other Mexican Mafia defendants are waiting to hear if federal prosecutors in Los Angeles will seek the death penalty against them.