Prosecution Finishes Final Arguments in Mexican Mafia Case

In final arguments that signal that the lengthy Mexican Mafia trial is nearing an end, the prosecution Tuesday painstakingly outlined its case to the jury, contending that the evidence “spoke to us in a clear and unmistakable voice” that the Mexican Mafia is a murderous prison gang.

The 13 defendants, all suspected members and associates of the group, watched impassively as Assistant U.S. Atty. Jack P. DiCanio went over each of the 29 counts brought by federal authorities against them. Photos of murder victims were flashed on courtroom monitors and snippets of surreptitious tapes were played to underscore the prosecutor’s presentation.

DiCanio asked the jury to consider all the evidence that had been brought against the Mexican Mafia--the 104 witnesses, the more than 250 photographs and other exhibits and the more than 300 video and audiotapes. Although he mentioned the government’s key witness, former Mexican Mafia member Ernest “Chuco” Castro, and his value to the case, DiCanio told the jurors to focus on the evidence.

“Focus on the only thing that really matters in this case,” DiCanio said in ending his presentation, “the evidence.”

Late in the afternoon, defense attorneys began their closing presentations by noting DiCanio’s sparing use of Castro in his arguments. Deputy Federal Public Defender Ellen Barry picked up on the persistent defense claim used throughout the six-month trial that Castro was a murderer out to save his own skin, calling him in her closing argument a “lying rat.”

But Tuesday mostly belonged to DiCanio, who in his presentation reminded the jurors of what they were told in opening statements in November.

He recounted the Mexican Mafia’s history: It was formed in the late 1950s in California’s prisons as a way for Chicano inmates to protect themselves against other ethnic groups. He listed the group’s governing rules barring members from cowardice, homosexuality, cooperating with law enforcement and “politicking,” or bad-mouthing other members of the Eme, Spanish for the letter M and the group’s nickname.

The tapes played during the trial backed up those assertions, he pointed out.

DiCanio then went through each of the 29 counts, spending most of his time on the first three--violations of the federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statute; conspiracy to violate the RICO statute, and conspiracy to aid and abet drug trafficking.

The first count, violations of the RICO law, alleged 23 racketeering acts, including murder, conspiracy to murder, armed assaults on opponents and other offenses. In the case of the 1988 murder of Eme member Jose “Sluggo” Pineda, DiCanio played a tape in which defendant and reputed Eme godfather Benjamin “Topo” Peters is heard admitting his role in Pineda’s murder.

“It took five years to get Sluggo,” Peters is heard telling his mother on a tape secretly recorded at Pelican Bay State Prison.

Included in the alleged racketeering acts in the first count are the murders of Eme members Charles “Charlie Brown” Manriquez and Manuel “Rocky” Luna and Boyle Heights resident Ana Lizarraga. But while the prosecution initially made much of the fact that their deaths were linked to the making of the 1992 Edward James Olmos movie, “American Me,” DiCanio made no references to the movie in Tuesday’s presentation. All three were unpaid advisors to the prison gang movie.

By mid-afternoon, DiCanio completed his presentation, allowing defense attorney Barry, who is representing Alex “Pee Wee” Aguirre, to begin her closing statement.

She said prosecution witness Castro was a manipulator who used the FBI, as well as the jury, to suit his own purposes. “How can you trust this guy?” she asked the jury, referring to inconsistencies in his testimony. “How can you trust what he says?”

Barry also reiterated the defense assertion that there is no such thing as the Mexican Mafia. She likened the Mexican rural myth of the existence of a goat-sucking vampire, the chupacabra, to the L.A. urban myth of the existence of a Mexican Mafia.

Repeat the myth often enough and people will believe it, she said.