Ezequiel Romo, a gang chief who ordered murders of rivals and followers alike in a bid to take care of management over drug and assortment rackets in Panorama Metropolis, was stabbed to dying Sunday at Centinela State Jail, authorities mentioned.
Romo, 47, was serving a life sentence with no risk of parole after being convicted final yr of homicide, tried homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide.
He had lately been transferred to Centinela, a 3,000-man jail within the Imperial County desert. Round 8 p.m. on Sunday, officers mentioned in a press release, three inmates attacked him in a day room.
The assailants — recognized by jail officers as Cristian Moreno, Johnny S. Garcia and Christian O. Hernandez — didn’t cease stabbing Romo till guards used 4 “functions” of pepper spray, authorities mentioned. Romo was pronounced useless about two hours later.
Romo, nicknamed “Depraved,” had beforehand been launched from jail in 2014 after serving 18 years for manslaughter and assaulting one other inmate. He returned to his outdated neighborhood of Panorama Metropolis intent on bringing his gang into line, witnesses testified at his trial in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom.
Visitors streams by way of the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Blythe Road.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Instances)
Blythe Road, a gang that takes its identify from just a few crowded blocks between Van Nuys Boulevard and Brimfield Avenue, was in Romo’s view plagued with “soiled homeboys,” in line with a former affiliate who testified towards him.
The witness mentioned Romo meant to purge the gang of snitches, drug customers and anybody he perceived as disloyal. He needed Blythe Road to work beneath the Mexican Mafia, the syndicate that managed the prisons the place he’d spent the final 18 years.
“His factor was making issues proper for them folks,” the witness mentioned. “Taking good care of folks within the county [jail]. It sounded good, however quite a lot of violence got here after.”
Felipe Delgado died Nov. 10, 2015, after being shot behind an house constructing on Kester Avenue in Panorama Metropolis.
(Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom)
In line with testimony, the primary homicide that Romo orchestrated was for his personal revenue. The witness testified that Romo purchased a kilogram of cocaine on credit score, then organized for a younger member of Blythe Road to kill the vendor, Felipe Delgado, so he wouldn’t should pay for it.
Two months after Delgado was gunned down behind a Kester Avenue house complicated, Romo was arrested on drug costs. He pleaded responsible and was despatched to serve 4 years at Centinela, the place, with a contraband cellphone, he maintained a stranglehold over Blythe Road, witnesses testified.
In a photograph introduced in court docket as an exhibit, Isidro Alba was killed inside his Dodge Avenger the evening of Aug. 27, 2017.
(Los Angeles Superior Courtroom)
Isidro “Topo” Alba, a Blythe Road veteran who clashed with Romo, was lured to a Goal on Raymer Road. Ready for what he thought was a drug deal, Alba was ambushed. Two gunmen riddled his Dodge Avenger with bullets, killing Alba and narrowly lacking his girlfriend within the passenger seat.
After the bullets stopped flying, she bumped into the road to flag down an oncoming automobile — solely to comprehend it was being pushed by the shooters. They obtained out and opened hearth, in line with video footage performed in court docket, however someway missed her once more.
One of many males who killed Alba and shot at his girlfriend was Oscar “Smoky” Molina, Romo’s fawning right-hand man. From Molina’s telephone, detectives recovered WhatsApp messages despatched to Romo pledging to “all the time have ure again so long as I’m round.”
Oscar Molina, a veteran of Blythe Road known as “Smoky,” grew to become Ezequiel Romo’s right-hand man after Romo was despatched again to jail in 2016.
(Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom)
“Gracias for ur phrases,” Romo wrote again. “They r a present I settle for greater than cash or shiny objects.”
In his WhatsApp messages, Romo wrote of demanding “full management” of Panorama Metropolis, described himself as a “normal” and his gang as an “empire,” and mentioned of his administration fashion: “Some say I’m too arms on.”
In line with a witness near Molina, Romo ordered him to “maintain” a younger Blythe Road hanger-on, Carlos Rios. The 21-year-old’s sin: tattooing his face with a “B” with out first being inducted into the gang. Rios was shot within the again whereas spray-painting Blythe Road graffiti on a wall on Valerio Road.
Carlos Rios was spray-painting a fence in Van Nuys when he was shot within the again on Oct. 28, 2017.
(Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom)
Molina stored Romo knowledgeable about different killings within the neighborhood, in line with his WhatsApp messages. After Santos “Raider” Martinez, an 18-year-old Blythe Road member, gunned down a rival gangster and a bystander who occurred to be sitting subsequent to him on a bus bench, Molina wrote to Romo: “The whole lot labored out perfecto as soon as once more.”
“Good to know…” Romo replied. “Gracias b secure!!!”
Earlier than lengthy, nonetheless, their relationship soured. Romo dressed down Molina for lacking his calls. Molina whined about Romo’s nitpicking. “Typically I’m not having an excellent day,” he informed his boss.
Early one morning in 2018, Molina stepped out of his Tobias Avenue house and was shot within the doorway by an outdated good friend, Eder “Mousey” Mendoza, prosecutors charged. A witness testified that Romo ordered Molina’s dying as a result of he’d been caught mendacity, he owed folks cash and he was utilizing medicine.
Isidro Alba was murdered inside his Dodge Avenger the evening of Aug. 27, 2017 by fellow members of his gang, Blythe Road.
(Los Angeles Superior Courtroom)
Twelve days later, Mendoza and one other Blythe Road member, Lorenzo “Scooby” Gonzalez, picked up a girl named Karen Tobar in an unlicensed “bandit cab,” prosecutors wrote in court docket papers.
Tobar, 23, had been in Molina’s house simply earlier than he was killed. Believing she’d talked to the police, Mendoza and Gonzalez stabbed her to dying at Carey Ranch Park in Sylmar, prosecutors allege. Each males have pleaded not responsible to murdering Molina and Tobar.
In August, Gonzalez was charged with murdering his cellmate in a downtown Los Angeles lockup, Joseph “Capone” Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, 51, was a longtime affiliate of Michael “Mosca” Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who for years managed the Los Angeles County jail system.
Thought of by regulation enforcement to be the dominant organized crime determine within the San Fernando Valley, Torres, 59, was killed final July at California State Jail, Sacramento, the place he was serving 133 years to life for tried homicide, witness tampering and different crimes.
A month later, Hutchinson was discovered stabbed and overwhelmed to dying within the cell he shared with Gonzalez within the 2400 module of Males’s Central Jail, in line with a coroner’s report. Gonzalez, 27, has pleaded not responsible to murdering Hutchinson.
