Prison gang leader says he ordered hit on two officials

Letter from behind bars urged ‘brothers on the street’ to ‘step up’

LAS CRUCES — An FBI informant and high level “shot caller” with the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang testified in federal court about how and why he ordered a “hit” on top prison officials from behind bars.

Robert Martinez, nicknamed “Baby Rob,” took the stand midway through the trial of four gang members for murder and racketeering including the alleged leader of the SNM. At least a dozen gang members turned informants are government witnesses in the first of three trials in federal court stemming from a massive FBI racketeering investigation.

Martinez testified on Thursday he wrote a letter to gang members he referred to as “brothers on the street” telling them it was “time to step up” and ordering them to kill two prison officials. In the letter he wrote “details you can figure out yourself.”

Jurors followed along as Martinez read from the letter he confirmed was in his handwriting projected on a big screen in the courtroom.

Martinez told federal prosecutor Maria Armijo he decided to kill Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel in 2014 because gang members were tired of being “in lockdown for a year.”

They targeted Dwayne Santiestevan, who was in charge of the Security Threat Intelligence Unit for the corrections system, “for making comments about Baca” referring to Anthony Ray Baca, the alleged leader of the gang who is on trial.

Baca’s attorney questioned Martinez about whether he really believed gang members would carry out the murder or if the threat was merely a way to ensure prison officials moved him out of state.

“This wasn’t the first time you had used a disci-

plinary action to get moved,” said attorney Theresa Duncan.

“We wanted both, to be shipped out and the hit,”said Martinez.

Duncan said,“You know damn well that isn’t going to happen.”

Martinez testified he had doubts gang members outside prison walls would carry out his orders. “The ones willing to do that were locked up.” In the letter he also threatened gang members if they ignored the orders their own relatives would be targeted.

Federico Muñoz, nicknamed “Playboy,” earlier testified he was a loyal “soldier” for the SNM who killed for the gang in and out of prison. While on parole he murdered a member of a rival gang, a man he didn’t know, who happened to walk into a barber shop.

“We were in a full blown war. It doesn’t matter the location or venue, you have to act on it,” said Muñoz.

He testified he was ordered by Gerald Archuleta, a Syndicato leader in prison to shoot fellow SNM gang member Julian Romero (who had been released from prison) because “Julian began to have a romantic relationship with Gerald’s wife.” Romero survived.

Muñoz testified that while he was in prison he and two other gang members killed an inmate and a fellow gang member suspected of being disloyal. “I strangled him with a sheet” because it was “quieter and not as messy.”

Defense attorneys questioned Muñoz about whether he was getting a lighter sentence in return for his testimony and if members of the prosecution promised to speak to Governor Susana Martinez on his behalf. “That was just a pipe dream,” said Muñoz. “The time still runs,” he said referring to his sentence for state convictions.

The former gang members testifying for the government provided a look behind prison walls inside the brutal gang, born during the Santa Fe prison riot in 1980, and the generational divide that exists today.

Martinez, a member of the SNM for 30 years, said he no longer trusts fellow gang members and was disillusioned with the younger generation of new recruits who had not “earned their bones” but were allowed to join because they could provide drugs or had a relative in the gang.

“Baby Rob,” who entered New Mexico’s corrections system in 1988 at the age of 18 and rose through the ranks of the Syndicato to a leadership role, testified he went to prison officials and said, “I’m done. I’m tired of this. I want out.” And as proof, he handed over a shank, a crude weapon made in prison.

“It was supposed to be a family. In reality we’re all a bunch of killers,” said Martinez.