It seemed possible that his parents were right. Yes. She recounted that Martinez was hyperactive and sweating. A supervisory special agent with the A.T.F. The air buzzed with the hushed tones of dozens of different conversations each regarding a different case. With no explicit confession from Martinez, Lugo called Officer Leo Noyola, the leading expert in Perkins operations. For a rock solid case he needed a confession. Shocked and confused he shouted Im sorry. Martinezs worried glance at Sullivan betrayed his fear. Blustering with frustration he told the court Theres not one scintilla of evidence that David Martinez shot Shaun Diamond.. His legal binders were plain but fastidiously organized and when it came to the media he eschewed the spotlight preferring to focus on his cases. He thought it was the Mongols. Justice would be served. He told them about how his respect for David Martinez had grown over the course of the trial. Mongols National President David Santillan said, "We're happy. Five and a half years after his arrest, David Martinez continues to wait in jail. Sullivan prompted Moss to admit that after the announcements started he saw a man inside the house walk towards the door. On the final day of testimony, Sullivan walked into the courtroom bleary-eyed but beaming. If he couldnt show them Davids mindset before the incident, he would settle for showing them the aftermath. Just my thought as I have no horse in this race, Insane Throttle Support Club Become a memberNow, Insane Throttle/Motorcycle Madhouse Radio YouTube and AudioDisclaimer, Meet the Insane Throttle Contributing Columnist James Hollywood Macecari, Motorcycle Clubs Riding Clubs and Associations Near Me Index &Listings, Our Policies here at Insane Throttle Publications. The room was already tense. That line of questioning was immediately buried in objections from the prosecution. He explained: We wanted them to know we were there monitoring.. Mr. Ciccone, who retired last year, testified that Mr. Santillan never served as an informant for the agency, nor did he pass on any defense information during the trial. He ran to the living room and saw his dad open the door. It would have been impossible from where he was standing. He called off the operation and Martinez was taken to his cell. Diamond was shot in the back of the base of his neck with a shotgun during the service of a search warrant. be admitted. David had testified that he hadnt seen or heard the police and that he feared for his life. Contact & Personal Details. But his torture was not simply mental: Martinez was also physically assaulted and threatened. They had a strong self-defense case. By the time the Martinez family arrived there wasnt enough room for them to sit. A retrial was scheduled to begin in February of 2020, but was continued until fall of 2020 in order to provide the defense with more time to interview potential witnesses. Esqueda attempted to pivot, asking the medical examiner if the metal fragments found during Diamonds autopsy could have come from a door breaching explosive.Subsequent witnesses refuted his theory, explaining that no explosives were used to open the door, only a ripram a manual push-pull device. The imposing man was persistent and thorough in his interrogation. Martinez parents, Guadelupe and Arturo, were called to testify in addition to the medical examiner and Shaun Diamonds partner, Richard Aguiar who was part of the SWAT team operation. Black Dragon's Sunday Night Round Table discusses Insane Throttle's live interview with former Mongol's MC Nation's International President Lil' Dave. And on the night or morning when you saw him in the office he was high on methamphetamine, correct? Sandra responded quietly. All three elements of evidence would be critical during trial as they included exculpatory statements from David Martinez. The recordings also proved that David didnt brag about his actions to the other Mongols at Montebello or during the Perkins Operation. But in court on Monday, Annie testified that her husband has never been a confidential informant, rather she was just trying to destroy him by sending the text message to the Mongols. Im sorry. Upon reaching the Martinez home, several officers rammed the padlocked gate that led to the backyard of the property while others announced their presence and approached the front porch. David told me that they had been meeting every day at Starbucks before trial until Judge Carter told them not to because a juror saw them together, Mr. Stubbs testified in August. Moss tried to alert the other officers that someone was coming but his voice was drowned out by the banging and the shouting and barking of Martinezs dogs. Santillan had called his wife in June 2021to beg for forgiveness. Prosecutors refiled the charges of second-degree murder and all lesser offenses. He told the undercover officers that he assumed it was the Mongols when he heard the banging. The Judge overseeing this case is WALLA, NORI. We use a combination of modeling, theory, and numerical simulations to study the dynamics and properties of flows involving a microstructure (such as particles . The tapes were garbled and filled with overlapping discussions that would have to be meticulously picked apart. Maybe the shot he fired didnt hit anyone. John told me that I have one year, one year, David said during the call. She admitted Martinez owned the items and that he had been involved with the brotherhood for over three years. The explosive allegations come after a secretly recorded video surfaced of Santillan talking to his wife about the lead ATF agent on the case John Ciccone. Before the door closed, David Jr. caught a glimpse of his father as he was dragged outside by SWAT officers into the dark night, illuminated by the flash of red and blue lights. It was in the context of these parallel federal and local investigations that seven search warrants were served to suspected gang members residences on October 28, 2014 as part of a multi-agency operation to crack down on illicit club activities. This case was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Courts, Pasadena Courthouse located in Los Angeles, California. The jury watched a distraught Martinez in the holding tank crying out in concern for his family. David Santillan informants Mongols Motorcycle Club racketeering U.S. District Judge David O. Carter Follow Law&Crime: Next Post A graduate of the University of Oregon, Meghann worked at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, and the Idaho Statesman in Boise, Idaho, before moving to California in 2013 to work at the Orange County Register. And it wasnt usual for him to be up at 3am. The Mongols claimed that Mr. Santillan had an inappropriate working relationship with an A.T.F. In the wake of the emotional testimony, Sullivan cross-examined Moss with dogged persistence, causing him to concede that the police announcements were made by multiple voices that sometimes overlapped. Martinez grabbed the shotgun that he kept by the side of his bed and ran to the living room where his parents and sister slept. He is a rat, Mr. Santillans wife, Annie, suggested in a text message that became a key piece of evidence in the case against the group, which was founded in Southern California in 1969 and whose members are mostly Hispanic. Sullivan let the words hang in the air. David has been working at The Daily Aztec since 2017 and is the current Assistant News Editor. According to the California State Bar public records, Esqueda faced private reproval in 2001 for failure to respond to client inquiries, failure to promptly release a client file, and failure to keep a client informed of significant developments. The original case attracted widespread attention because of the federal governments unusual attempt to force the Mongols to forfeit their rights to the clubs trademarked logo a drawing of a brawny Genghis Khan-like figure riding a chopper while brandishing a sword and thus relinquish a big source of the organizations mystique. 1,120 following. So she sent the recording along with a text message to two members of the Mongols, explaining that her husband has been working with the government. She explained, In other words, he is a rat.. Jaime Martinez casually responded, Yes, I pointed my weapon into the house. Garden quickly reoriented the question. The brutal injury killed him a few hours later. In order to defend their area and protect the club's reputation, the Mongols are known to perpetrate violent acts such as assault, intimidation, and murder on a regular basis. This was not the score they were looking for. In 2021 it was revealed that David Santillan, president, had acted as a confidential informant for John Ciccone, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. But after a motorcycle accident kept Martinez from working for several months, financial strain brought the family back under the same roof. His lips tightened as he observed the damage: Diamond had sustained a shot in the back of the head that severed his spinal cord, carotid artery, and jaw. The current president of the Mongols Motorcycle Club is David Santillan, a man who claims that the organization has changed its code of conduct to exclude drug abusers and criminals. When Brady Sullivan and his second chair, Barbara Martin, arrived for opening statements, they were met with a sea of law enforcement in the gallery. Each of their dress blues nicely ironed, all of their tie pins immaculately shined. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Upon arriving at the jail Noyola worked on Martinez in the holding cell. Sullivan knew the danger of that story; he needed to unravel it to convince the jury of Martinezs innocence. A former ATF agent denied during courtroom testimony Friday that a now-deposed leader of the notorious Mongols Motorcycle Club served as a secret source of information for the government during a lengthy legal battle over whether the outlaw . For three weeks, officers took the stand. Unfortunately, the change in environment provided no solace: Martinezs new block was filled with alleged rapists, pedophiles and child-murderers. After listening to Martinezs conversations with the Mongols, Detective Lugo was certain that Martinez shot the gun. The shocking accusation arrives after a secretly recorded video of Santillan talking to his wife about a special agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. As Lugo and Noyola plotted their next move, Martinez was having a brief conversation with a lawyer a friend of one of Martinezs sisters who stopped by after hearing the family was in trouble. A mother of a homicide victim whose case was worked by Lugo once said, God sent Ray because he never quits. That relentless pursuit of justice was why Lugo had been assigned to this case, one that was now the top priority of LAPD because it involved the shooting of an officer. If the mission to elicit a confession was going to work, it had to be done quickly. If Moss message had been heard, then the SWAT team may have waited for Arturo to open the door. ATF officials view Santillans public declarations about the club cleaning house as hollow words; they continue to treat the Mongols as a serious threat. Moss described the bloody trauma to Diamonds airway, his words seeped in loss as he made eye contact with every juror. Eventually, Martinez was moved back to the Mongols cellblock where he continued to reside in fear but could at least sleep in peace for a few hours at night. In the shadowy halls, he was attacked with a shank and sustained a gash to his arm. Prior to arriving at the house, Diamond and his fellow officers set up traffic cones representing the Martinez home and property lines in the SWAT office parking lot. Unsure if the jury would ever hear the recordings Sullivan knew the strength of the defense would rely on a single witness: his client, David Martinez. Martinez was exhausted, and distraught but he was clear headed enough to know one thing. The club's name of the "Mongols" was inspired by Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire. Now the Mongols want a new trial and say their former president, David Santillan, was a confidential informant for the ATF. At least when the operations are done right. Beanbag shot would not cleanly go through Shaun Diamonds neck. He was just the scapegoat taking the blame for the police firing on their own. During the call, David, who was drunk and despondent at the time, begged for her forgiveness and said that he planned to get treatment for his drug and alcohol addictions. The stakes of the operation had now dramatically increased. Prosecutors sought to depict David Martinez as the embodiment of the battle between the Mongols Motorcycle Club and the federal government. Still, Sullivan knew that in order to convince the jurors he had to give them something as close to that fictional record as possible. Ever since David Santillan became the club president, in 2015, things have taken a better turn and it is said that now their unlawful activities have stopped. Except for David Martinez. Moss and his partner loaded Diamond into the ambulance and drove off towards Huntington Memorial Hospital, sirens blaring as they left the active crime scene behind them. agent. Martinez explained that the night of the incident was pure chaos. Its the wooden front door of the Martinez residence in San Gabriel, California. Bearded and brawny, Kozlowski was a former ATF agent who infiltrated the Mongols from 2005- 2008, during which time he went by the moniker of Dirty Dan. He described the Mongols illegal activities in great detail as well as their hatred of law enforcement. In other words, Ms. Santillan wrote in the text, he is a rat. In the video, played several times during the hearings, Ms. Santillan is talking to her husband on speakerphone when he informs her that Mr. Ciccone will be retiring. Court Records. He worried about his kids. The rest of the SWAT team searched the home. The case was one of the first that Crime Story covered and at the outset it appeared simple: a coldblooded gang member had killed a cop. Supporters and relatives gathered for BBQs in the park and Martinez niece, Pricilla, took to social media to expose what she considered to be the LAPDs self-serving lies.