EGN NEWS DESK
Alex Gonzalez, 33, additionally was ordered to spend three years of supervised launch after his launch from lockup after reaching a plea deal through which he admitted to having a .9mm handgun loaded with hole level bullets throughout a police visitors cease in 2017.
Gonzalez was on his technique to perform an assault ordered by Johnny Martinez, who on the time was a pacesetter of a neighborhood road gang and who since has grow to be the purported chief of the Orange County faction of the Mexican Mafia, in keeping with court docket filings.
From a jail cell, Martinez is accused of reaching out to Omar Mejia, his alleged “shot caller,” to order an assault on a person who Martinez believed was “utilizing medicine with, and making advances towards,” Martinez’s girlfriend, prosecutors wrote in court docket filings.
Investigators “intercepted” a name between Martinez and Mejia through which Martinez instructed Mejia to get “Hitman” — which prosecutors recognized as Gonzalez’s road identify — to assault the person he allegedly believed had been spending time with Martinez’s girlfriend, in keeping with the prosecution filings.
Officers noticed Gonzalez driving in a automotive that was headed towards the would-be sufferer’s residence, prosecutors wrote. During a automotive cease, Gonzalez resisted police and “a battle ensued,” through which a firearm fell out of his waistband, prosecutors wrote.
In 2022, Martinez, alleged high-level Mexican Mafia associates, together with Mejia, and alleged decrease degree gang members with suspected ties to the Mexican Mafia, together with Gonzalez, have been named in a federal indictment alleging that these related to the highly effective, prison-based Mexican Mafia had carried out murders, tried murders and quite a lot of drug and gun-related crimes.
Comprised of senior members of Latino road gangs, the Mexican Mafia exerts widespread management over gang exercise throughout Southern California. Those who deal medicine in gang-controlled territories or visitors narcotics out and in of lockup are “taxed” by Mexican Mafia leaders. And those that ignore or refuse to comply with the Mexican Mafia’s guidelines or orders are sometimes focused for assaults and even dying.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors wrote that Gonzalez beforehand ransacked the house of a person who had allowed his girlfriend to remain at his residence. They additionally described Gonzalez, in 201 5, hitting a girlfriend within the face whereas she was holding the couple’s 1-month-old child.
“Defendant’s historical past and conduct present a fast and prepared willingness to behave violently and a persistent disrespect for the legislation,” prosecutors wrote.
Gonzalez’s protection lawyer wrote in his personal sentencing memo that between being pulled over in 2017 and charged in 2022 Gonzalez had turned his life round. Gonzalez overcame the drug dependancy he had struggled with because the age of 13, his lawyer wrote, had left behind the gang life and had grow to be a plumber.
The protection lawyer argued that Gonzalez had grown up poor in a gang-infested, drug-ridden neighborhood. His mom deserted Gonzalez when he was 2 years previous, the protection lawyer wrote, and his father left when he was 4. Gonzalez later took on the identical “Hitman” road moniker that his father had used when the daddy was a member of the identical gang, the protection lawyer added.
