3 OC gang members found guilty of murder, victim allegedly connected with Mexican Mafia

SUGGESTED: Gang members arrested in cop deaths

Authorities arrested gang members in the San Gabriel Valley in connection to the deaths of El Monte police officers.

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Three Orange County street gang members were found guilty by a federal jury of the August 2017 murder in Orange of another gangster, allegedly connected with the Mexican Mafia prison gang.

Mike Escobar, a member of the Little Hood gang in Anaheim; James Mendez, a Sureño gang member from Garden Grove; and Kevin Trejo, a member of the Jeffrey Street gang in Anaheim, were each found guilty of one count of violent crime in aid of racketeering.

According to evidence presented at the eight-day trial, on Aug. 21, 2017, the defendants murdered the victim, who was a member of a Costa Mesa street gang.

SUGGESTED:

At the time of his murder, the victim trafficked drugs and collected "taxes" from gangs in Orange County for an imprisoned Mexican Mafia member, Johnny Martinez.

The defendants tricked the victim into driving with them just before midnight from his home in Anaheim to a residential neighborhood in Orange, where they shot him seven times in the back and once in the head.

Escobar, Mendez, and Trejo were acting on orders from Martinez, who issued the order to kill the victim for allegedly stealing drugs and money from Martinez.

Sentencing for the defendants is scheduled for March 2024. Each faces a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison.

Santa Ana Crime and Public Safety Orange County