Rain fell on the physique of a lady within the parking zone outdoors Gaby’s Cafe, a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in San Bernardino.
The killing merited only some strains within the San Bernardino Solar the subsequent day: “The lady suffered a number of gunshot wounds to the higher torso. Paramedics carried out CPR on the girl earlier than an ambulance sped her away.”
However for individuals who knew Carmen Rodriguez — and who she was married to — her homicide that night time in January 2017 was incomprehensible. Her husband, Andrew “Huero Verde” Rodriguez, a member of the Mexican Mafia and a pacesetter of the Westside Verdugo road gang, was arguably probably the most highly effective determine within the San Bernardino underworld.
Carmen Rodriguez, authorities would be taught, had not been the sufferer of some home dispute or a random crime, however an assassination ordered by others within the Mexican Mafia and carried out by Rodriguez’s underlings in Westside Verdugo.
One story of how Carmen Rodriguez was betrayed by her husband’s males unspooled this summer season on the trial of her alleged killer. Whether or not it was the actual story stays unsure. The trial, which included dozens of witnesses and a whole bunch of items of proof, produced as many questions as solutions.
What the trial made clear is the facility the Mexican Mafia holds over the gang members who do its bidding. Informed to kill their boss’s spouse, Andrew Rodriguez’s underlings didn't hesitate to homicide a lady who till the final minute of her lifethey affectionately known as “tia” and “mother.”
The town of San Bernardino is split by the 215 Freeway. To its east is downtown, the banks and courthouses and municipal buildings, the shuttered buying heart, the big-box shops. To the west is a pocket of small properties, dusty and sun-beaten, some tidy, others heaped with junk and particles. That is the territory of Westside Verdugo.
The gang is rooted in a set of huge households who've lived within the neighborhood and pressed on with internecine feuds “via generations, via many years,” stated Leo Duarte, a retired state corrections official and Mexican Mafia knowledgeable who was raised on the west facet of San Bernardino. “That’s all they know. They grew up within the varrio and so they stayed there.”
The neighborhood was as soon as dwelling to working-class Latino households supported by decent-paying jobs with the Santa Fe railroad, Kaiser Metal and Norton Air Drive Base. However between 1983 and 1994, all three employers moved or shut down. Hundreds of jobs vanished.
“As soon as they shut down Kaiser, Santa Fe, Norton, all the things went down,” Duarte stated. Some households relied on authorities help to make ends meet, he stated, whereas others turned to crime. “You don’t have a thriving financial system, you've got folks out of a job, you’re going to have crime,” he stated. “And you understand what the most important caper is? Medicine.”
Some dad and mom selected medication over their youngsters, “so the youngsters type of clique up,” a lifelong member of Westside Verdugo testified on the trial of Carmen Rodriguez’s accused killer, explaining how his subset of the gang, Sur Loopy Ones, was born. “That’s what the Loopy Ones began as, household.”
Like most Latino gangs in Southern California, Westside Verdugo is subservient to the Mexican Mafia. Generally known as a “gang of gangs,” the group consists of about 140 males, practically all of them incarcerated, who management Latino gang members in jail and acquire taxes from gangs and drug sellers on the road.
A well-built man who wore a goatee and darkish glasses, Andrew Rodriguez was in his early 40s when he was inducted into the Mexican Mafia round 2009. He was a decade right into a life sentence he obtained for holding up a Sears and a sporting items retailer in San Bernardino — his third felony conviction.
Subscribers get unique entry to this story
We’re providing L.A. Instances subscribers particular entry to our greatest journalism. Thanks to your assist.
Discover extra Subscriber Unique content material.
In some circles of his hometown, Rodriguez was revered: A detective recalled on the trial raiding a house on San Bernardino’s west facet and discovering a photograph of Rodriguez propped up on a shelf, the Mexican Mafia’s black hand tattoo throughout the entrance of his throat.
Rodriguez was the primary Westside Verdugo member to be inducted into the Mexican Mafia in 15 years. His ascent provided his gang an opportunity to show the web page on a tortured previous with the group.
The final member of Westside Verdugo to affix the Mexican Mafia was Phillip “Chano” Chavez. Paroled from Pelican Bay State Jail in 1995, Chavez returned to his neighborhood intent on settling an outdated rating, a San Bernardino detective wrote in a memo reviewed by The Instances.
Chavez had harbored a grudge in opposition to one other member of the gang, Johnny “Leche” Gutierrez, for the reason that two have been youngsters, based on the memo. He believed Gutierrez had informed the police a few theft that acquired him despatched to the California Youth Authority.
Chavez ordered Gutierrez’s nephew to kill him. When he refused, Chavez had one other Westside Verdugo member gun down the nephew, the memo stated.
Three weeks later, Chavez and two others have been shot to dying outdoors a house on San Bernardino’s west facet. In accordance with information reviewed by The Instances, considered one of Gutierrez’s brothers informed authorities that Gutierrez had shot Chavez, who then crawled below a van. The brother recounted dragging Chavez’s physique out from below the car to verify it for bullet holes.
After Chavez was killed, the Mexican Mafia put a “inexperienced gentle” on Westside Verdugo members — an order for different gangs to assault them behind bars and on the streets, based on jail information. A month later, Gutierrez was discovered shot to dying within the driveway of a San Bernardino dwelling. He was carrying latex gloves and carrying a Mini-14 rifle, based on the detective’s memo.
His personal gang had killed him to raise the inexperienced gentle, informants informed police.
This summer season, a sheriff’s deputy led a brief, stocky man in a inexperienced jumpsuit to the witness stand of a San Bernardino courtroom. His arms have been shackled to his waist. His neck and shaved head have been so lined in tattoos they appeared a blue-green.
For security causes, the prosecution’s star witness was recognized solely by his nickname, Goo Goo. In alternate for a 25-year jail sentence, the 47-year-old had agreed to plead responsible to manslaughter, admit he’d arrange Carmen Rodriguez to be murdered and testify in opposition to the boys accused of serving to him do it — together with two of his childhood associates.
In 2016, Goo Goo informed the jury, he was launched from jail. His first time out, he acquired a name from a fellow member of Westside Verdugo who was nonetheless incarcerated, Eric “Inexperienced Eyes” Moreno.
Moreno gave him the accountability of being the “llavero,” or key-holder, for Westside Verdugo. As llavero, he was to gather taxes and ship the cash to their boss, Rodriguez. Goo Goo stated he had identified Rodriguez, a distant relative, since he was a baby, rising up across the nook from him and his brother.
Moreno was Rodriguez’s “secretary” — a task as soon as sometimes crammed by girls who weren't in jail, who used visits and letters to move messages from Mexican Mafia members to their underlings. However the proliferation of contraband cell telephones within the state jail system has proved a “sport changer,” testified Lt. Eddie Flores of the San Bernardino Police Division. Prisoners can now talk straight with each other to rearrange drug offers, order assaults and manage assortment rackets, Flores testified.
Telephones are smuggled in by correctional officers and “free workers” — plumbers, electricians, meals preparers, Goo Goo testified. “I’ve seen nurses carry ‘em in, I’ve seen ‘em flown in on drones.”
A telephone prices about $1,200 in jail, he stated. “You type of find out how these items work, the economics. For those who’re bringing in too many cell telephones, flooding the yard, the value drops.”
Goo Goo described his day by day routine as Rodriguez’s man on the road: “I’d stand up within the morning — it’s like going to work, having a job,” he informed the jury. First he would name somebody within the jail system, often Moreno.
From his cell on the state jail in Calipatria, the place he was serving 10 years for possessing an assault rifle, Moreno would inform Goo Goo what wanted to be dealt with that day. “Patch this up right here, that there,” he recalled. Ship medication. Decide up cash.
His job took him throughout his boss’s territory, which at this level, legislation enforcement officers testified, comprised all of San Bernardino County and elements of Riverside County. “Generally I’d be within the automotive for 2 days straight,” Goo Goo stated.
He testified that he collected about $500 a month from every of Westside Verdugo’s cliques and different Inland Empire gangs, corresponding to Beaumont, Hesperia, Casablanca and Eastside and Southside Riva. He would flip over the cash to Rodriguez’s spouse, Carmen, who had married him in jail in 2015.
Goo Goo revered Andrew and Carmen Rodriguez, whom he known as “tia,” or aunt. An ex-girlfriend testified that his telephone’s background was a photograph of the couple. Damage, she requested why it wasn’t an image of her. “That’s my household,” she recalled him saying.
By 2017, Rodriguez’s standing within the Mexican Mafia had turn into precarious.
Some consider it was as a result of he was shut with Arthur “Turi” Estrada, a Mexican Mafia member from Rancho Cucamonga who had pushed for Rodriguez to turn into a member. After consolidating a grip on the drug commerce in lots of California prisons and the streets of Riverside County, Estrada alienated others within the group who, resentful of the cash and affect he’d amassed, pushed to revoke his authority. Estrada finally fell out of favor round 2015, misplaced management of his territories and noticed his brother and right-hand man murdered.
One gang member, talking on situation of anonymity for worry of reprisal, informed The Instances the tipping level got here when Rodriguez despatched a crew to Victorville to rob kinfolk of one other Mexican Mafia member.
Regardless of the purpose, different Mexican Mafia members determined to place Rodriguez “on disregard,” that means nobody was to hold out his orders or ship him cash, Goo Goo and different witnesses testified.
However his spouse was defiant and continued to gather taxes on his behalf, based on testimony.
The night of Jan. 18, 2017, Goo Goo joined a convention name with Moreno and two different inmates, Richard “Simple” Garcia and Matthew “Nips” Manzano, who have been on cell telephones in several prisons.
Goo Goo had identified Garcia, who was serving life in jail for homicide, since they have been youngsters arising in Westside Verdugo’s Sur Loopy Ones clique. Manzano had been sentenced to life with out the potential for parole for killing two males in 2005.
Moreno led the assembly. He stated he’d obtained an order to kill Carmen Rodriguez, Goo Goo testified. Everybody went quiet.
“I informed them, ‘Are you positive? Are you positive that is the correct factor?’” Goo Goo recalled. He stated he requested “if there was some other method this might be dealt with.” Moreno stated no.
Authorities consider a number of members of the Mexican Mafia voted to kill Carmen Rodriguez, Lt. Mike Martinez of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division testified. They've managed to determine solely Danny “Popeye” Roman, a significant determine within the group who was later stabbed to dying in jail, Martinez stated.
Moreno didn’t say who had ordered Carmen Rodriguez’s homicide, Goo Goo testified, solely that it wanted to be carried out that night time. Goo Goo would lure her to her dying. Moreno stated he’d already talked to the person who would kill her, Isaac “Criminal” Aguirre, Goo Goo testified.
Twenty years earlier, Goo Goo testified, Aguirre had been accused of getting “dry-snitched” in a homicide case — making an attempt to get one other member of his gang to incriminate himself on a recorded jail telephone. The allegation had hung over his head ever since. Killing Carmen Rodriguez, Goo Goo testified, was “the one technique to get out of dangerous graces.”
After the telephone name, Goo Goo stated he met with Aguirre, who “didn’t actually have an excessive amount of to say about it. Mr. Aguirre, he was simply in a nasty spot.”
Goo Goo testified he handed a .38 revolver to Aguirre, who angrily informed him that Moreno, Garcia and Manzano wished to be on the telephone listening as he killed Carmen Rodriguez.
“It was a tousled factor to start with,” Goo Goo stated. “I wasn’t pleased about it. I knew he wasn’t pleased.”
Goo Goo lured in Carmen Rodriguez by saying he had cash to offer her. From jail, Moreno and Manzano despatched her instructions to Gaby’s Cafe. “OK mothers,” Manzano wrote in a WhatsApp message, including a smiling emoji. “Simply need it to be simple for you.”
Goo Goo was ready in a Mercury Grand Marquis when Carmen Rodriguez parked two spots away, her 14-year-old daughter within the passenger seat of her Hyundai Elantra.
She acquired out and began to stroll towards him. Behind his thoughts, he stated, he questioned if he too was about to be killed. He slumped down in his seat. “It’s a unclean sport,” he informed the jury. “It’s a unclean sport. I’ve seen it occur earlier than.”
Goo Goo testified that he heard 5 gunshots and noticed Carmen Rodriguez fall to the bottom. He reversed out of the parking zone and sped off into the night time. Later that night time, his then-girlfriend testified, Goo Goo picked her up at an deserted dwelling the place she’d been staying and stated he “did one thing horrible.”
On cross examination, Aguirre’s legal professional, Melanie Roe, tried to get Goo Goo to confess that he had rolled down his window and fired the deadly photographs himself.
“Flawed,” he shot again.
Roe argued that Goo Goo had dispassionately deliberate the homicide of a lady he had affectionately known as “tia.”
“I used to be disturbed,” he stated, again and again. “Ma’am, I’m not an animal. I've emotions. I used to be disturbed.”
Jurors apparently didn't consider his story. After a two-month trial, they acquitted Aguirre of homicide. He walked out of courtroom a free man in July after spending 5 years in jail. He declined to remark.
Manzano beforehand had been convicted of the homicide and given one other life time period. Halfway via his personal trial, Garcia pleaded responsible to manslaughter and acquired 30 years on prime of the life-without-parole sentence he was already serving.
Roe stated she “completely” believes Goo Goo shot Carmen Rodriguez and criticized prosecutors for giving him a plea deal. A spokeswoman for the district legal professional’s workplace didn’t return a request for remark.
Carmen Rodriguez was simply the primary to die.
Days after she was killed, Andrew Rodriguez’s brother, Perry, was discovered lifeless from a gunshot in San Bernardino. The killing was dominated a suicide, however Roe, who reviewed police reviews of the incident, stated the circumstances have been suspicious to her. A lone witness left the scene, however then known as police an hour later to report the dying, she stated.
Shunned by others within the Mexican Mafia, ignored by his personal crew, his spouse murdered, Andrew Rodriguez was himself discovered lifeless 4 months later in his cell at Pelican Bay, overdosed on heroin. Authorities suspect — however have by no means been capable of show — that he was killed with a “hotshot,” an intentional overdose.
The gangs he managed and the month-to-month funds he collected have been parceled out to different Mexican Mafia members, based on testimony and wiretapped calls performed at trial.
“That is proper out of Macbeth,” Roe stated. “This was a homicide dedicated for the needs of a land seize, a territorial seize.”
After which there was Moreno. The night time earlier than he was to be delivered to San Bernardino County to face prices of murdering Carmen Rodriguez, a guard at Kern Valley State Jail discovered the 30-year-old strangled in his cell.
Moreno’s cellmate, a member of Westside Verdugo serving a life sentence for torturing a person to dying, has been charged together with his killing. He was ordered by a Mexican Mafia member to kill Moreno, the one one who may identify the individuals who had directed Carmen Rodriguez’s homicide, earlier than he acquired on the bus to San Bernardino the subsequent morning, based on a legislation enforcement supply and a Mexican Mafia affiliate with data of his dying.
Post a Comment