Prison gang members fill court
Secret recordings at heart of charges
LAS CRUCES — Nine suspected members of the notorious Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang filled a heavily guarded federal courtroom this week for a pretrial hearing about evidence in a federal racketeering case.
The pretrial hearing sets the stage for the complex trials to come in a case that involved allegations that the gang ordered the assassination of a former state corrections secretary.
The hearing Wednesday included testimony about secret recordings of inmates discussing the gang’s violent crimes in and outside prison walls.
Rudy Perez, aka “Ru-Dog,” who is heard on recordings made secretly by gang-member-turned-FBI-informant Billy Cordoba, denied in court knowing details about the murder of SNM gang member Javier Molina in 2014.
Perez, responding to questions from federal prosecutor Rudy Castellano about the recorded conversation, repeatedly said, “I lied.”
When asked whether the “shank” used to kill Molina was made from a piece of his walker, Perez said, “Again, I lied.”
He also said he was taking the painkillers Gabapentin and Tramadol at the time of the murder, and “I didn’t know nothing. I just got out of the hospital.”
Perez is among a dozen defendants going to trial who have been indicted on racketeering charges for running a violent criminal enterprise, including murder.
The defendants — many with shaved heads and tattoos on their necks, faces and back of their heads, and wearing prison jumpsuits — were strategically spaced out in the courtroom. A dozen guards stood watch during the hearing. Those near the courtroom entrance were heavily armed.
The alleged SNM gang members are represented by some of the best-known criminal defense attorneys in Albuquerque serving as public defenders in the high-profile case.
Amy Sirignano is representing defendant Christopher Garcia, also known as “Critter,” and Billy R. Blackburn is representing Arturo Garcia, also known as “Shotgun.”
During the hearing, attorneys asked to suppress evidence that includes the prison recordings made by the informant. They also asked to introduce an expert witness on prison gang behavior.
Among the issues: the “voluntariness of recorded statements made by Rudy Perez to the informant.”
On Tuesday, defense attorneys questioned alleged SNM gang member Cordoba about how the FBI directed him to make recordings.
Sirignano, in a motion filed in February, said some of the cooperating witnesses faced threats by law enforcement that they would be included in the racketeering prosecution if they didn’t cooperate.
“There is a great risk that these coercive police tactics will produce involuntary statements,” she stated in the motion.
Defense attorneys are asking for a week’s advance notice of witnesses before they testify, but prosecutors in a filed a response to the motion Thursday said that would jeopardize the safety of the witnesses.
“The defendants and many of the cooperators in this case remain in prison,” the motion states. “As seen in the facts of this case, the SNM gang calls for the abuse and murder of individuals if they plan to testify or cooperate with the government.”
The FBI in 2015 began investigating an alleged plot by an SNM gang leader to kill New Mexico Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel that involved gang members who had been released from prison. The investigation led to an indictment of 25 gang members.
The pretrial hearing continues next week. The first of two trials is set for late January 2018.