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CHICAGO \u2014 Shortly after his arrest in early October, Little Village construction worker Juan Espinoza Martinez was led by three federal agents into a windowless interview room, still dressed in a green work T-shirt and carrying a small bottle of water.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re probably a little confused about what\u2019s going on today, so I\u2019m gonna try to explain it all to you,\u201d Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Christopher Perugini told Espinoza Martinez at the outset of the Oct. 6 videotaped interview, which was played for a federal jury Wednesday. \u201cFeel free to ask me any questions you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, the agents laid it on Espinoza Martinez, a 37-year-old father of three, why he was there.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurder for hire?\u201d Espinoza responded, holding up his hands questioningly.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorrect, so that\u2019s what the charge you\u2019re charged with,\u201d Perugini said. \u201cI\u2019ll explain it to you as we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agents then confronted Espinoza Martinez with text messages he\u2019d sent an acquaintance that included a photo of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, who was then the face of Operation Midway Blitz, along with what agents characterized as cash bounties for Bovino\u2019s kidnapping and murder.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the interview, the agents pressed Espinoza Martinez repeatedly on how he thought the messages looked. He said over and over he meant nothing by it, that they were nothing more than social media chatter, and that he had no intention of making any actual offer for Bovino\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really confused about this,\u201d Espinoza said at one point in the interview. \u201cI have no gang affiliation\u2026I\u2019m not nowhere around there. I work for a living every day. I\u2019m a union worker. I work concrete, so I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portions of the videotaped interview were played for jurors in court Wednesday as the trial of Espinoza Martinez got underway before U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow.<\/p>\n
Espinoza Martinez, 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.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, Espinoza Martinez told an acquaintance from the construction business, Adrian Jimenez, after an immigration agent shot a woman in Chicago\u2019s Brighton Park neighborhood on Oct. 4 \u201cthat he had dispatched members of the Latin Kings\u201d to the area of 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue in response to the shooting.<\/p>\n
Jimenez, who had worked as a government informant on and off for years, called up Homeland Security and shared the Snapchat messages that Espinoza Martinez had sent him saying, \u201c2k on information when you get him\u201d and \u201c10k if u take him down,\u201d along with Bovino\u2019s photo, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
In his opening statement to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Minje Shin said the case was not about someone charged with \u201cexpressing strong, even angry, views about immigration enforcement policy\u201d or a hatred of Bovino.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake no mistake \u2013 the evidence in this case will show that what the defendant did was not a joke, not just mouthing off, not just him blowing off steam behind a keyboard, not political discourse \u2026 what the defendant did was a solicitation of murder,\u201d Shin said.<\/p>\n
Shin said Espinoza Martinez was \u201cfixated\u201d on Bovino, who was \u201cthe face of the threat\u201d to arrest, detain, and deport members of his community in Little Village, a threat that \u201chit close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espinoza Martinez\u2019s attorney, Jonathan Bedi, told the jurors in his opening remarks that the case was \u201criddled\u201d with reasonable doubt because \u201cthe government cannot point to anything that shows Juan\u2019s intent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you cut through all of their words\u2026all they have is their guesses and speculation,\u201d Bedi said. \u201cThey are guessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedi says there were no bags of money, no follow up, no recordings, no discussion of any plans. No location scouting, no escape route, no surveillance, no communication saying \u201cBovino\u2019s here now would be a good time to act.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRepeating neighborhood gossip is not a federal crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Before the Espinoza Martinez\u2019s taped interview was played, jurors heard testimony from the informant, Jimenez, who walked slowly into court with a pronounced limp from a back issue he\u2019s been suffering.<\/p>\n
Dressed in a blue suit, with a salt-and-pepper beard, Jimenez said he\u2019s been in construction for decades and recently started his own construction business. He also was convicted in 2000 of a felony and spent several years in prison.<\/p>\n
Though the jury did not hear details of that case, court records show Jimenez\u2019s conviction was for an armed robbery and home invasion in Franklin Park that was charged in 2000. He was later sentenced to six years behind bars.<\/p>\n
Jimenez told the jury he\u2019s known Espinoza Martinez for \u201cless than a year.\u201d The defendant first reached out to him on Snapchat, looking for construction work, he said.<\/p>\n
Jimenez testified he took photos of the Snapchat messages received from Espinoza Martinez on Oct. 2 and \u201calmost immediately\u201d contacted agents with HSI about them.<\/p>\n
Jimenez testifies he had conversations about immigration with Espinoza Martinez \u201cmore than a few times.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when Shin attempted to ask what they talked about specifically, the defense repeatedly objected and the judge sustained it.<\/p>\n
On cross-examination, defense attorney Dena Singer asked Jimenez a series of questions: You have a family, right? You work? You want to continue working and you want to continue staying in the U.S.? And you take care of your kids?<\/p>\n
Jimenez answered \u201cYes\u201d to all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019re not somebody who commits murder-for-hire, right?\u201d Singer asked,<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Jimenez said.<\/p>\n
Singer also got Jimenez to acknowledge that Espinoza Martinez never asked him to take any action against Bovino or share the message with any wider audience.<\/p>\n
Did he ever say \u201cHere\u2019s where Bovino is going to be next?\u201d Singer asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Jimenez replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he ever say \u201cHere\u2019s a picture of cash,\u201d or \u201cI have someone who can pay you all this cash?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Jimenez said he had not.<\/p>\n
Espinoza Martinez\u2019s trial is the first criminal case to stem from Operation Midway Blitz to go to trial.<\/p>\n
Though limited in scope, the case is expected to offer an important litmus test as immigration-enforcement operations continue to roil Chicago and other Democrat-led cities long targeted by President Donald Trump, including Minneapolis, where the killing of a U.S. citizen by an immigration agent earlier this month has sparked nationwide protests.<\/p>\n
The case was held up by top Department of Homeland Security officials as an example of the violence and threats immigration agents were facing from gang members and even international drug cartels.<\/p>\n
In the months since, however, evidence of Espinoza Martinez\u2019s supposed gang affiliations has not materialized. Prosecutors vastly toned down that aspect of the case, first dropping mention of gang affiliation in the indictment handed up by a grand jury, then saying in a pretrial hearing they only intended to prove Espinoza Martinez had an \u201caffinity\u201d for the Latin Kings.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the defense objected to prosecutors introducing a text string where Espinoza Martinez told an unidentified contact: \u201cIt\u2019s going down bro my guys are ready in the vill (Little Village). Saints sd and 2Six being bitches. Kings on they ass n they scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors argued the conversation showed Espinoza Martinez was disappointed other gangs weren\u2019t fighting back.<\/p>\n
But Lefkow sided partially with the defense, saying the comments on Little Village can be shown to the jury, but not the references to the Latin Saints or Two-Six gangs.<\/p>\n
She also excluded later text by Espinoza Martinez about \u201cChapo\u201d having the Latin Kings\u2019 back \u2014 a reference to former Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
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