Ezequiel Romo, a gang leader who ordered killings of rivals and followers alike in an attempt to maintain control over drug and debt collection networks in Panorama City, was stabbed to death Sunday at Centinela State Prison, authorities said.
Romo, 47, was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after being convicted last year of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
He had recently been transferred to Centinela, a 3,000-inmate prison in the Imperial County desert. At about 8 p.m. Sunday, authorities said in a statement, three inmates attacked him in a break room.
The attackers, identified by prison officials as Cristian Moreno, Johnny S. Garcia and Christian O. Hernandez, did not stop stabbing Romo until guards used four “applications” of pepper spray, authorities said. Romo was pronounced dead about two hours later.
Romo, nicknamed “Wicked,” had been released from prison in 2014 after serving 18 years for murder and assault of another inmate. He returned to his old neighborhood of Panorama City with the intention of getting his gang in order, witnesses testified at his trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Traffic flows through the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Blythe Street.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Blythe Street, a gang that takes its name from a few crowded blocks between Van Nuys Boulevard and Brimfield Avenue, was, in Romo's view, riddled with “dirty kids,” according to a former associate who testified against him.
The witness said Romo intended to purge the gang of snitches, drug users and anyone he perceived as disloyal. He wanted Blythe Street to work for the Mexican Mafia, the syndicate that controlled the prisons where he had spent the past 18 years.
“His job was to do things right for those people,” the witness said. “Take care of the people of the county.” [jail]“It sounded good, but then there was a lot of violence.”
Felipe Delgado died on November 10, 2015, after being shot behind an apartment building on Kester Avenue in Panorama City.
(Los Angeles County Superior Court)
According to testimony, the first murder Romo orchestrated was for his own benefit. The witness testified that Romo bought a kilo of cocaine on credit and then arranged for a young member of Blythe Street to kill the dealer, Felipe Delgado, so he wouldn't have to pay for it.
Two months after Delgado was shot to death behind a Kester Avenue apartment complex, Romo was arrested on drug charges. He pleaded guilty and was sent to serve four years in Centinela, where, with a contraband cellphone, he maintained a stranglehold on Blythe Street, witnesses testified.
In a photograph presented in court as evidence, Isidro Alba was killed inside his Dodge Avenger on the night of August 27, 2017.
(Los Angeles Superior Court)
Isidro “Topo” Alba, a Blythe Street veteran who clashed with Romo, was lured to a Target on Raymer Street. While waiting for what he believed to be a drug transaction, Alba was ambushed. Two gunmen riddled his Dodge Avenger with bullets, killing Alba and nearly killing his girlfriend who was in the passenger seat.
After the bullets stopped flying, he ran into the street to flag down an approaching car, only to realize it was being driven by the shooters. They got out and opened fire, according to video played in court, but somehow missed him again.
One of the men who killed Alba and shot his girlfriend was Oscar “Smoky” Molina, Romo’s right-hand man. From Molina’s phone, detectives recovered WhatsApp messages sent to Romo in which he promised to “always have you back as long as I’m around.”
Oscar Molina, a Blythe Street veteran nicknamed “Smoky,” became Ezequiel Romo’s right-hand man after Romo was sent back to prison in 2016.
(Los Angeles County Superior Court)
“Thank you “For your words,” Romo replied. “They are a gift I accept more than money or shiny objects.”
In his WhatsApp messages, Romo wrote about demanding “total control” of Panorama City, described himself as a “general” and his gang as an “empire,” and said of his management style: “Some say I’m too hands-on.”
According to a witness close to Molina, Romo ordered him to “take care of” a young Blythe Street hanger-on, Carlos Rios. The 21-year-old’s sin: tattooing his face with a “B” without first being inducted into the gang. Rios was shot in the back while spray-painting Blythe Street graffiti on a wall on Valerio Street.
Carlos Rios was spray painting a fence in Van Nuys when he was shot in the back on Oct. 28, 2017.
(Los Angeles County Superior Court)
Molina kept Romo informed about other murders in the neighborhood, according to their WhatsApp messages. After Santos “Raider” Martinez, an 18-year-old Blythe Street member, shot and killed a rival gangster and a bystander who was sitting next to him on a bus bench, Molina texted Romo: “Everything went perfectly once again.”
“That’s good to know…” Romo replied.Thank you “b sure!!!”
However, their relationship soon soured. Romo reprimanded Molina for not taking his calls. Molina complained about Romo’s criticism. “Sometimes I don’t have a good day,” he told his boss.
Early one morning in 2018, Molina left his apartment on Tobias Avenue and was shot outside the door by a longtime friend, Eder “Mousey” Mendoza, according to prosecutors. A witness testified that Romo ordered Molina’s death because he had been caught lying, owed people money and was using drugs.
Isidro Alba was murdered inside his Dodge Avenger on the night of August 27, 2017 by fellow members of his Blythe Street gang.
(Los Angeles Superior Court)
Twelve days later, Mendoza and another Blythe Street member, Lorenzo “Scooby” Gonzalez, picked up a woman named Karen Tobar in an unlicensed “bandit taxi,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Tobar, 23, had been at Molina's apartment just before he was killed. Believing she had spoken to police, Mendoza and Gonzalez stabbed her to death at Carey Ranch Park in Sylmar, according to prosecutors. Both men have pleaded not guilty to killing Molina and Tobar.
In August, Gonzalez was charged with murdering his cellmate in a downtown Los Angeles jail, Joseph “Capone” Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, 51, was a longtime associate of Michael “Mosca” Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who for years controlled the Los Angeles County jail system.
Considered by law enforcement to be the dominant figure in organized crime in the San Fernando Valley, Torres, 59, was killed last July at California State Prison in Sacramento, where he was serving a 133-years-to-life sentence for attempted murder, witness tampering and other crimes.
A month later, Hutchinson was found stabbed and beaten to death in the cell he shared with Gonzalez in the 2400 cell at Men's Central Jail, according to a coroner's report. Gonzalez, 27, has pleaded not guilty to Hutchinson's murder.
