Bay Area men plead guilty to racketeering charges
The three are also linked to a gang and man's slaying
Three Bay Area men, including a justice activist who billed himself as a youth mentor just 11 days after he allegedly murdered a 15-yearold boy, have pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, records show.
Fernando “Nando” Madrigal, 24, Alvaro “GBoy” Reina-Cordero, 25, and Oscar “Cutty” Guadron-Diaz,
23, all pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering. They're scheduled to be sentenced in June. Details of the plea agreement that preceded the guilty pleas have been kept under seal.
The three were indicted in December 2020 on charges that they were part of a Mission Districtbased Norteño gang. The indictment linked ReinaCordero and GuadronDiaz to the Jan. 23, 2018, killing of 20-year-old Duby Ortiz-Guardado in San Francisco, in which a second victim survived a shot to the face. Madrigal was charged with murdering 15-year-old Day'von Hann in San Francisco, and with participating in the murder of another man in July 12, 2018, whose name authorities have yet to reveal.
The unknown victim's body was discovered February 2020 by tree trimmers working in a “wooded area of Oakland,” according to the indictment. A month later, the victim's skull was discovered in a nearby area. Authorities allege Madrigal lured the victim to a meetup at Candlestick Point, claiming he wanted to buy marijuana.
Just 11 days after he allegedly killed Hann, Madrigal spoke at an anti-violence rally alongside his mother. At the time, police were still investigating the case. In 2020, federal authorities alleged Madrigal murdered Hann after mistaking him for a rival gang member on the 3200 block of 24th Street. At the July 2019 rally, Hann's mother pleaded for the violence to stop, while Madrigal spoke about his own experiences surviving a shooting.
In April 2019, Madrigal also publicly spoke out at a rally intended to increase support for shutting down San Francisco's juvenile hall. The news site KTVU hailed him as a young man who “now works to keep kids on the right track” and quoted him as saying that juvenile incarceration, “doesn't help nobody.”
“I deal with multiple youth with the work I do and it doesn't help nobody, everyone says the same thing,” Madrigal said.
Around the same time, according to authorities, Madrigal was posting videos on Instagram offering firearms for sale and boasting that if he caught a rival “slipping,” then “it's going to be a murder.” Just one day before the April 2019 rally, he posted a video of himself possessing a gun with a large-capacity “drum” magazine at a BART station, as a train pulled up.
Guadron-Diaz, an Oakland resident, was arrested in December 2020 with multiple unregistered guns and more than 100 rounds of ammunition in his possession, according to court records. All three men have been in jail since their arrests, on a no-bail federal hold.
The racketeering charge carries a maximum sentence of life. Prosecutors have not revealed how much time they will ask for, and neither have the defense attorneys. The sentencing will be held June 29, before U.S. District Judge William Orrick.