Lugo immediately took hold of the situation. SANTA ANA, Calif. After federal prosecutors won a landmark racketeering conviction against the Mongols motorcycle club, in an attempt to put an end to the outlaw groups long record of murder, attempted murder and drug dealing, the Mongols countered with an unusual claim: Their leader, they said, had been secretly helping the government in its efforts to bring down the organization. So she sent the recording along with a text message to two members of the Mongols, explaining that her husband has been working with the government. She explained, In other words, he is a rat.. They threatened to stab David should he open his mouth. We all know there are two sides to every story. Legal message boards were filled with complaints from former clients about Esquedas disrespectful attitude and incompetence, but Martinez himself was too distracted to investigate his lawyers past. Most of the members were military veterans and all loved to ride their Harley Davidson motorcycles. After his incarceration, Mongols Club members voted for his removal from office in 2008. Diamond was shot in the back of the base of his neck with a shotgun during the service of a search warrant. He acknowledged that he was a member of the Mongols, but he testified that at the time of the shooting he had been trying to move on with his life. The attorney wasnt an expert in criminal law but he told Martinez one thing: do NOT talk to anyone even the other inmates could be informants. The case was one of the first that Crime Story covered and at the outset it appeared simple: a coldblooded gang member had killed a cop. This is a reprise presentation of our original post on November 13 of last year. And the festivities of Christmas. He is a transfer student from Palomar College, where he worked as an arts & culture writer for The Telescope, Palomar's on-campus newspaper. "Lots of brothers have tattoos of the marks on their necks and heads and everywhere," David Santillan, the national president of the club, said. David Santillan, Assistant News Editor David is a senior at San Diego State where he is majoring in French. He had to focus on the gut-wrenching task at hand: his preliminary hearing. But his torture was not simply mental: Martinez was also physically assaulted and threatened. Hands restrained in cold metal cuffs, he fought the overwhelming panic bred by helplessness in the face of crisis. Crime Story Weekly Newsletter Sign-up Maybe the shot he fired didnt hit anyone. Marital privileges did not. The two shouted back and forth, relaying the events of the evening, and finding a brief solace in their companionship. He promised he'd put his infidelities behind him, get sober and be a better father. Im sorry. Sullivan prompted Moss to admit that after the announcements started he saw a man inside the house walk towards the door. They call themselves the Mongols Motorcycle Club - and they're one of the largest Motorcycle Clubs in the world. The Mongols are a recent arrival in El Paso and one of three major biker gangs in the city, a police gang investigator testified earlier this year in the trial of a member of the Kinfolk MC. The medical examiner testified that during the autopsy he found several metal fragments in Diamonds brutalized airway suggesting that the injury came from a shotgun. Esqueda told the family that the whole situation was a police cover-up and he was certain that they would win in court. Keep it up! An easy no. The DAs office only pursued the death penalty when the case was rock solid. Sullivan called other witnesses, including neighbors who didnt hear the police announce and friends of David Martinez who attested to his character. Moss described the bloody trauma to Diamonds airway, his words seeped in loss as he made eye contact with every juror. Eventually, Martinez was moved back to the Mongols cellblock where he continued to reside in fear but could at least sleep in peace for a few hours at night. Under Jack Gardens guiding hand, their testimonies reinforced the narrative that the SWAT team followed procedure and announced their presence at the Martinez home. Davids parents stood firm in their belief that their son never shot Shaun Diamond. It seemed possible that his parents were right. It was a colossal task for Sullivan who was, by his own admission, not stellar with technology. For a rock solid case he needed a confession. Martinez would be his last big case, the culmination of his years as defense counsel. It was a blow to Sullivan, who knew that the tapes could offer the jury a valuable snapshot of his clients emotional and mental state in the hours after the incident. Garden clicked his pen with satisfaction as Noyola noted that Martinez mentioned being concerned about informants in the transit vehicle. If he couldnt show them Davids mindset before the incident, he would settle for showing them the aftermath. 02:34 LIL Dave is all over the main stream, 04:10 Why did lil dave not want ciccone on the stand, 06:45 Our invitation for Ciccone to come on the show, 15:14 Mongol Lawyer thinks LIL DAVE WAS COMPROMISED AFRAID AND TURNED ON HIS CLUB. The Mongols Motorcycle Club was convicted in late 2018 of racketeering and conspiracy. In order to defend their area and protect the club's reputation, the Mongols are known to perpetrate violent acts such as assault, intimidation, and murder on a regular basis. Cavazos subsequently plead guilty to charges of racketeering and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He is a rat, Mr. Santillans wife, Annie, suggested in a text message that became a key piece of evidence in the case against the group, which was founded in Southern California in 1969 and whose members are mostly Hispanic. Charlaine Olmedo excused the jury to admonish Sullivan for his tone. As the Mongols continued to talk, Martinez overheard a familiar voice echoing through the air vent. . New features, smoother menu and backgrounds- PLUS!! Martinez didnt mean to shoot anyone. Pacing before the jury, Sullivan explained that the evening of October 28, 2014 was a perfect storm in which a series of unexpected circumstances came together and resulted in tragedy. Ex-ATF agent denies Mongol was an informant 2022-07-23 - By Sean Emery semery@scng.com . If convicted David Martinez could face the death penalty. But after a motorcycle accident kept Martinez from working for several months, financial strain brought the family back under the same roof. In the prosecutions opening Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake portrayed David as a violent gang member who saw his opportunity and took his shot. Sullivan followed Blakes blunt assessment with a more nuanced version of events. Prior to arriving at the house, Diamond and his fellow officers set up traffic cones representing the Martinez home and property lines in the SWAT office parking lot. The ruling won't keep . After reviewing the evidence Judge Olmedo ruled the tape of Martinez in the police car as inadmissible and refused to make a firm ruling on the admissibility of the Montebello or Perkins recordings. He fired his weapon and the bullet struck a fine young officer who was just doing his job. The coroners report showed that Diamond was shot in the back of the neck. Sullivan forged ahead in his defense of David Martinez. Martinezs retrial faced further delays when the pandemic threw court schedules into disarray. He told them about how his respect for David Martinez had grown over the course of the trial. After his arraignment, the court referred Martinez to the public defenders office which appointed Brady Sullivan as his counsel. Representatives from several local law enforcement departments also said they had no such records. Sullivan only needed to prove that the banging on the gate, the barking of dogs and the physical chaos of the scene made it impossible for Martinez to identify the cops. He reminded his client that all hope was not lost. At a young age, Diamond passed up opportunities to go to college to become an officer and provide for his daughter, Margo. Now, nearly four years later, the collective, which was once the most powerful biker organization on the West coast other than its archrivals, the Hells Angels, is returning to court next week to request a new trial in the wake of a recent allegation that their former president, David Santillan, was working with the government as a confidential informant, according to The New York Times. It had taken weeks for the prosecutors to paint David Martinez as a hardened gang member but now the portrait was vivid. Judge Charlaine Olmedo sustained the objection, but she told Sullivan that he could play the video and audio tapes if they were edited down to exclusively include the parts in which Martinez was speaking.This task would be difficult for anyone. Santillan's wife, Annie Santillan, told ABC7 that she recorded their conversation because the couple had become estranged due to his infidelity. #mongolsforeverforevermongols #onassignment #biker #bikersofinstagram #portrait #mongols #mc 350w empiremarketingpro Love your post! Judge M. L. Villar, at the preliminary hearing, added a special gang allegation to the capital murder charges after the prosecution connected him to a Mongols chapter in Montebello, California. If Martinez didnt hear the police announce and he didnt see them before firing the gun, then he was innocent of murder. I dont find theres sufficient cooperation to merit overturning the conviction, Judge Carter said in a ruling from the bench. Noyla nodded. He used gang slang, talked about tattoos and encouraged Martinez to talk about the Mongols. Sullivan knew the danger of that story; he needed to unravel it to convince the jury of Martinezs innocence. I didnt know it was the cops. He told the undercover officers that he assumed it was the Mongols when he heard the banging. The interactions are recorded on audio and video surveillance and their use is admissible in a court of law. Martinez aimed his shotgun. Jack Garden was quick to point out that the SWAT team only used beanbag shot. A mile-long police motorcade drove through Pomona, watched by the citizens of the town who held signs showing their support for the Diamond family. The couple was adamant: David didnt shoot Shaun Diamond. The community of San Gabriel united behind the Martinez family. They believed Arutro had been shot by an officer and that David wasnt even in the living room when it happened. Then, after more than a month apart, Sandra finally regained custody of Alyssa and David Jr. allowing the tight family to rally together and to lift Martinez spirits. They held hands and whispered prayers under their breath. The Judge overseeing this case is WALLA, NORI. Then in 2012, Esqueda was placed on probation by the State Bar and forced to pay a former client $7,500 after his efforts to negotiate a settlement were judged as insufficient and he failed to return unearned legal fees. He and his wife, Annie, were estranged after he had an affair. With the help of an assistant he had managed to edit the hours of the Perkins audio tapes and the Montebello jail video tapes into small clips that the judge had found admissible in court. Martinez had been assigned to a block that housed several other members of the Mongols. An explosive claim followed about three years later, in 2021: that David Santillan, then the club's president, had acted as a confidential informant for John Ciccone, an agent with the U.S . In the wake of the trial, Brady Sullivan has announced that he is postponing retirement in order to continue representing David Martinez in the trial ahead. When Martinez took the stand, it was Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake who rose from his chair. agent, but they failed to persuade a judge to grant a new trial on the racketeering and conspiracy convictions against the club. Since those early days, the Mongols have grown in number. Inside, the blare of a bagpipe announced the arrival of Diamonds casket, carried by officers in uniform. DAVID SANTILLAN, agent; Registry Page It would have been impossible from where he was standing. As the dead of night gave way to dawn, Detective Ray Lugo arrived on the scene. A retrial was scheduled to begin in February of 2020, but was continued until fall of 2020 in order to provide the defense with more time to interview potential witnesses. Sandra testified for hours regarding Martinezs involvement in the Mongols Motorcycle Club. 13.6K followers. The tapes were garbled and filled with overlapping discussions that would have to be meticulously picked apart. Mongol Anthony "Bronson" Barrera, 43, was stabbed to death and two Hells Angels - Jeramie Bell, 27, and Robert Tumelty, 50 - were shot to death. He begged officers to tell him if his father was okay. Sullivan had now identified the gun that was pointed at the door. Theyve also grown in criminal operations, having been convicted of illicit drug trafficking, money laundering, robbery, extortion, firearms violations, and murder crimes that have been exposed by undercover ATF agents who infiltrated the club. David Santillan, the longtime president of the Mongols until he was ousted by members last year, says he was among those who decided to bring the Mongols to Chicago. It was the summer of 2019, and David Martinez was on trial for the murder of Pomona Police Officer Sean Diamond. Now the members in his bloc were restless, concerned that he was going to rat out mother the name for the Montebello chapter of the club that included the Mongols president, secretary, treasurer and the sergeant at arms. If prosecutors had decided to eschew the death penalty, that meant they had doubts. David Santillan currently lives in Temple City, CA; in the past David has also lived in Arcadia CA and South Pasadena CA. Did you ever poke it into the house? Jaime Martinez shook his head, but the damage was done. Disappointed by the courts rulings, Sullivan remained resolute, diving head-first into developing his defense. To college to become an officer and provide for his tone impossible from where he is rat. 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