Days before a high-profile trial, a federal judge Thursday barred prosecutors from bringing in evidence that a Chicago man charged with putting a bounty on Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino’s head had ties to the Latin Kings.
In her order, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow said that without direct evidence showing Juan Espinoza Martinez was a member of the Latin Kings himself or that the street gang had instructed him to disseminate a murder-for-hire order, simply implying he simply had ties to the gang or knew some of its members would be prejudicial.
Lefkow did rule, however, that the cooperating witness in the case can testify to what he understood “LK” and accompanying emojis to mean in text messages he received from Espinoza Martinez.
The judge’s ruling could be a significant blow to the prosecution, which had hoped to present testimony that Espinoza Martinez had an “affinity” for the Latin Kings and that text messages he sent to associates calling for Bovino’s killing were backed by specific knowledge he had of the gang’s activities.
At an emergency telephone hearing late Thursday afternoon, prosecutors sought clarification on Lefkow’s order, saying the jury could be left with no context at all on the reason for some of Espinoza Martinez’s communications.
“Nearly every piece of evidence in this case touches in some fashion on the Latin Kings,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan said. Some of it needed to come in, he said, “to provide context that this was a real threat that the defendant believed to be real and was taking serious, and that was his intent.”
Prosecutors also had a gang expert on their witness list at one point whom they could possibly call to educate the jury about the Latin Kings, their territory and other customs. At Thursday’s hearing, however, Yonan confirmed they do not intend to call the expert.
In response, Espinoza Martinez’s attorney, Jonathan Bedi, accused prosecutors of trying to “backdoor” evidence about the Latin Kings in order to improperly bolster a weak case.
“The reason they want to bring in the Latin Kings is they have no other evidence of intent,” Bedi said. “They are trying to muddy the waters.”
Lefkow took the issue under advisement and said she’d rule as soon as possible.
Espinoza Martinez, 37, who has lived in Chicago for years but is not a U.S. citizen, is charged in an indictment with a single count of solicitation of murder for hire, which carries up to 10 years in prison.
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A jury trial is set to begin before Lefkow on Tuesday and is expected to garner national attention as protests continue to roil Minneapolis following the killing of a woman by an immigration agent there.
According to the charges, Espinoza Martinez told a law enforcement source after an immigration agent shot a woman in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood on Oct. 4 “that he had dispatched members of the Latin Kings” to the area of 39th and Kedzie in response to the shooting.
A day later, the source showed a screenshot to law enforcement that had been sent to him by Espinoza Martinez depicting a conversation Espinoza Martinez had with an unknown individual, according to the complaint. In that conversation, Espinoza Martinez allegedly said, “lets get some guys out here bro.” The other person wrote back, “Let one of us be in front with the (green gun emoji),” the complaint stated.
The law enforcement source also shared Snapchat messages that Espinoza Martinez had sent him saying, “2k on information when you get him” and “10k if u take him down,” according to the complaint.
The message also stated “LK on him,” which was a reference to the Latin Kings, the complaint alleged.
Included in the message was a photo of Bovino, the Border Patrol “commander at large” who has been the public face of Midway Blitz in Chicago and similar operations in other cities across the country.
When Espinoza Martinez was originally charged in October, authorities alleged he was a “ranking” member of the Latin Kings, meaning some sort of leadership position.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security and Bovino himself have held the case up as a prime example of the violence that immigration officials were facing, including death threats allegedly coming from street gangs and even international cartels.
Espinoza Martinez’s lawyers, meanwhile, have said that not only is he not a high-ranking Latin King, but he has no gang affiliation at all, and no prior criminal history. The father of three and volunteer youth sports coach was arrested at the construction site where he was working long hours to support his family, his relatives and lawyers said.