Ruben Pinuelas was a rising star in the criminal underworld. By the time he turned 24, he'd left his small gang in El Centro behind, got busted for auto theft, stabbed an inmate and moved on to bigger things: running a prison yard for the Mexican Mafia.
His reign at California State Prison, Corcoran's Substance Abuse Treatment Facility lasted only a year. But it was the bloodiest year in the institution's history. The young leader had his hand in at least 10 attempted murders, and officials say they averaged a stabbing a day while Pinuelas controlled Facility C.
His story serves as a window into the power that criminal street gangs wield, even from behind bars, and the great lengths local authorities will go to keep these people in check.
"The gang culture is very, very violent," Kings County Gang Task Force Supervisor Andrew Meyer said. "They rule through fear, violence and intimidation. When they wind up in prison, they all form up together under a unified ruling body that controls their yard."
This unified body is known as a mesa, or table. It's a group of respected gang members who control the flow of money and narcotics in and out of the yard. And the head of a table, the "shot caller," gets a percentage from every transaction.
"The person running the yard has a lot of power," Meyer said. "He makes money without ever lifting a finger. Contraband goes for 10 times street value inside a prison. So these guys end up very wealthy."
Pinuelas was given control of Facility C after the previous shot caller was moved to a different prison. From the day he started, he showed a knack for keeping records and moving drug money around, so authorities had a hard time tracking it.
What he lacked, though, was subtlety.
Any time someone questioned his authority, Pinuelas lashed out. It is against the gang code to disobey orders, Meyer said, but Pinuelas went after everyone. He even had people stabbed who owed him money and paid late, investigators said.
The prison Investigative Services Unit began looking into the rise in attacks in the facility, but Investigator Ryan Couch could never directly link the hits to Pinuelas.
Until April 3, 2007.
That day, two inmates assaulted another out on the yard. The attackers, Aldrin Trejo and Louis Jimenez, continued to beat the man until they were covered in blood. They only stopped hitting him when correctional officers threatened to shoot, investigators said later. Though no weapons were found, the victim's wounds were consistent with a knife or sharp object.
But it was the location - the yard - where the attempted murder went down that surprised everyone.
"An attack on the yard is incredibly public," Deputy District Attorney Sarah Hacker said. "The assailant takes the risk of having correctional officers witness it. It also locks down the yard and limits a gang's ability to communicate and make drug transactions. Only a shot caller could have taken that kind of risk and ordered it."
Couch and the other investigators decided to search Pinuelas' cell. What they found was a wealth of information, more than 100 handwritten notes detailing extensive gang business - the good records Pinuelas was known for.
"He liked to keep his writing around," Meyer said. "We found lots of stuff in his files: lists of drug transactions, money owed, nicknames for gang members, parole dates, everything. Their entire chain of command was written down for us."
And among the files was a two-page note written by Pinuelas ordering the murder of his victim, identified by authorities only as "Inmate Villalobos."
The resulting investigation spanned more than three years and involved people from the Kings County District Attorney's Office, the Gang Task Force and the prison's Investigative Services Unit. They even enlisted help from the Department of Justice to examine the documents and compare handwriting samples, a news release said.
"It was worth it to send a message," Meyer said. "We're not going to let these people operate without any consequences. I doubt this will deter them, but I sure hope it does."
What they discovered was a power struggle for the mesa. Inmate Villalobos had been watching Pinuelas shed blood left and right and decided to do something about it. He, a loyal gang soldier, wrote to the gang leaders and asked for permission to take over and do things right.
Those loyal to Pinuelas warned him in advance. The leaders told Villalobos to do nothing, to let it slide. Pinuelas was told the same, but instead decided to make an example of the man in front of everyone on the yard, Meyer said.
Ultimately, Villalobos survived. And for living through such a violent assault, he was promoted in the gang as an "ideal soldier," investigators said.
Pinuelas was paroled in 2008, just nine months after the assault. He did not face charges until he was arrested in September 2010, along with Trejo and Jimenez for their role in the attempted murder.
They were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon by a prisoner. They also faced special enhancements for performing these acts to benefit a criminal street gang and for being previous one-strike offenders.
The jury trial lasted three weeks before coming back with a guilty verdict on all counts.
"It was a culmination of several years' investigation and so much hard work," Hacker said. "At that moment, I knew no matter what the outcome was, that good would prevail. I knew it in my bones. It was the best moment of the trial."
Pinuelas, Jimenez and Trejo were sentenced on Friday to each spend 60 years to life in prison. It served as a major victory for local law enforcement.
"I knew these guys had a certain amount of power, but not how much," Meyer said. "It's pure evil all around. To a magnitude I never suspected. The violence in our institutions is out of control. And it all spills out onto the streets. I hope this sends a message that we will continue to work cases like these."
0 comments:
Post a Comment