Federal officials announced charges Thursday into what they called two gang-related killings involving members of the Latin Kings and the Two Six street gangs.
The mother of one of the defendants has also been charged with threatening a witness shortly after her son was arrested Thursday morning, officials said.
U.S. Attorney David Capp announced the indictments at a press conference Thursday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Hammond.
Anton James, 19, of Hammond, is accused of murdering Martin Hurtado Sr. on Oct. 28, 2014, mistaking Hurtado for his son, Martin Hurtado Jr., who James thought was a member of a rival gang, Capp said.
His indictment says that James was walking in Hammond when he saw Hurtado and drew his gun, shooting several times. Hurtado was fatally struck in the chest. Police said at the time that Hurtado was working on his car. Hurtado Jr. was charged a few months later with attempted murder in retaliation for his father’s death.
Federal agents arrested James at 7:15 a.m. Thursday morning and just two hours later discovered that his mother, Dalia Guerrero, 39, of Merrillville, made threats to one of their witnesses, Capp said.
She was arrested and charged with threatening a witness. According to her indictment, Dalia told the unidentified witness she knew where the witness lived, what the witness looks like and that the witness should watch out. Capp said that the government will ask that both James and Dalia be held without bond. Both are scheduled for a detention hearing and arraignment Tuesday.
“This message should be loud and clear: We are not going to tolerate any interference with any of our witnesses,” he said.
He encouraged any potential witnesses to not be afraid, noting that they would make similar charges against anyone who threatened them and said that the federal government can move witnesses to other areas for their safety along with placing them in the witness protection program.
Jim Trusty, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s organized crime and gang unit, said gang crimes are already difficult to prosecute.
“There’s a constant threat of intimidation and witness reluctance that plagues these cases,” he said at the press conference.
The second case charges two Two Six members – Marcus Lovell Jenkins, 26, of East Chicago, and Charles Garcia-Berrios, 22, of Hammond – with the July 26, 2014 murder of Kemond Coleman, 18, of Hammond. The counts include murder in aid of racketeering and using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence resulting in death.
The charges are part of a superseding indictment that had already charged Garcia-Berrios and another co-defendant, Julio Ivan Cartagena, with two counts of attempted murder. Those counts relate to two unidentified victims who the government says Cartagena and Garcia-Berrios tried to kill on Aug. 30, 2013. Garcia-Berrios was already being held on those charges, and Jenkins was being held on a weapons charge that has been added to the superseding indictment.
Federal agents have announced about half a dozen cases in the past few years against members of the local Two Six street gang, with some charges for killings going back to the late 1990s.
Contact Teresa Auch Schultz at [email protected] More Top Picks Best Led Desk Lamps For Studying