9 Members of Mexican Mafia Are Convicted

A federal jury convicted nine Mexican Mafia members and associates Tuesday on charges ranging from racketeering and drug trafficking to murder conspiracy.

A tenth defendant was acquitted on four charges, but the prosecution immediately announced plans to retry him on two conspiracy counts on which the jury deadlocked.

Those convicted face prison terms of 20 years to life when they are sentenced by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter next year.

Founded by gang leaders from East Los Angeles in the 1960s as an alliance to control narcotics trade, the Mexican Mafia--also known as La Eme--grew into a powerful force inside California prisons and on the streets.

With a reputation for deadly retribution, it exacted “taxes” from local street gangs engaged in drug sales and controlled the supply of narcotics behind bars.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Levin, the lead prosecutor, portrayed the organization as a ruthless and violent scourge.

But the five-month trial that ended Tuesday also revealed a Mexican Mafia at war with itself, beset by internal power struggles and assassination plots by one faction against another.

Most of the murder conspiracies cited in the prosecution’s case involved attacks on rival Mexican Mafia members.

Or, as defense lawyer Manuel Araujo put it to the jury: “The issue is not whether La Eme exists, but whether it is organized crime. In reality, it is disorganized crime. It has no structure, no cohesiveness, no loyalty.”

The government’s case was built around hundreds of hours of court-approved wiretaps along with the testimony of Mexican Mafia members who turned on their colleagues after their indictment last year.

The star witness was an articulate, 24-year-old former student at Cal State Los Angeles, Max Torvisco, who rose rapidly from neighborhood street gang member to a local leader in La Eme.

Torvisco, nicknamed “Mono,” testified that from the outside he controlled all Mexican Mafia activities at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail and at Wayside Honor Rancho.

He said he was also in the process of solidifying the Mexican Mafia’s grip on Latino street gangs in Southern California when he was arrested.

After a few weeks behind bars, he sought out prosecutors and negotiated a deal to spare himself from being tried on federal death penalty charges.

On the witness stand, Torvisco alleged that he took part in or authorized 140 murders as a local Eme leader. Not all were carried out.

Torvisco, according to trial testimony, was one of four Mexican Mafia members who ran operations in the greater Los Angeles area.

“I was the one with the brains,” he told the jury.

He identified the other three as Juan “Topo” Garcia, 39; Frank “Sapo” Fernandez, 53; and Mariano “Chuy” Martinez, 42.

Fernandez and Garcia were among those convicted of racketeering and other crimes Tuesday.

Martinez was indicted along with Torvisco, Fernandez and Garcia, but he was given a separate trial because he is charged with crimes that carry the death penalty.

Eight other Mexican Mafia defendants also charged with capital crimes have had their trials stayed pending appeals.

Martinez’s trial started Tuesday as the jury was still deliberating the fate of the other defendants. It is the first federal death penalty trial in California in 52 years--a period in which the death penalty was suspended for 16 years and then was expanded to include more crimes, including drug offenses.

Martinez is accused of orchestrating the slaying of three men inside a Montebello auto body shop in 1998 and ordering the killing of 10 others.

In his opening statement to the jury, federal public defender Neison Marks said Martinez was not guilty of ordering the Montebello deaths and said his client acted in self-defense after surviving assassination attempts by a paid government informant.

Proceedings in Martinez’s trial were halted before noon by Carter when the jury in the other case sent out a note saying it had reached verdicts on all but a few charges after 24 days of deliberation.

Jury Foreman Craig Weisman, a psychologist with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said it took that long to deliberate because of the magnitude of the evidence.

Jurors listened to 600 wiretap audiotapes, pored through 31 volumes of evidence and digested 96 pages of court instructions.

In the end, he said, the jury relied heavily on the audiotapes in which the participants often talked in code and plotted attacks, according to the prosecution.

“It came down to what we heard on the tapes,” Weisman said. “A lot of the jurors disregarded what the bad guys said about each other.”

Weisman said one reason the jury acquitted Adrian Nieto on four counts was that the government did not have enough convincing audiotapes proving his guilt.

“Many of the jurors felt he did the things he was accused of,” Weisman said. “But the government didn’t present evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The U.S. attorney’s office plans to retry Nieto, 24, in February. His attorney, W. Michael Mayock, has asked for a bond hearing Nov. 8 for Nieto, who remains in custody.

Nieto, a student at Rio Hondo College, testified in his own defense that he was at a family gathering on Easter Sunday in 1998 when the government alleges he was chauffeuring Torvisco across Los Angeles in search of intended murder victim John Turscak, a rival in the Mexican Mafia.

As the not guilty verdicts were read, Nieto dropped his head and wept softly.

Two women were among those convicted.

Sally Peters, 47, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering and distribute narcotics. She is the wife of Benjamin Peters, the reputed godfather of the Mexican Mafia, who is serving a life term at Pelican Bay State Prison.

Also convicted on the same charges was Suzanne Schoenberg, 28. She is the wife of defendant Jimmy “Smokey” Sanchez, 41, who was convicted on racketeering, drug dealing and murder conspiracy charges.

The nine found guilty Tuesday were among 40 defendants charged in two indictments returned by a federal grand jury in 1999. Eighteen previously pleaded guilty. Two are scheduled to go on trial next year and one is a fugitive.