On Ezequiel Romo’s orders, members of his gang, Blythe Street, turned on and killed one another in a string of murders that left eight dead, according to evidence presented at a months-long trial which began in March in Los Angeles Superior Court.
He went to prison in 1996. When he returned to Panorama City 18 years later, he didn’t like what he saw.
Testimony and Romo’s text messages created the portrait of a micromanager who knew just one response to petty slights and suspicions. Get an unsanctioned tattoo? “Take care of it,” Romo told his lieutenant. When the lieutenant, who dutifully orchestrated that murder and several more, got strung out and stopped returning Romo’s calls, it was his turn to go.And if you had something Romo wanted, like a kilogram of cocaine, why pay for it? His dealer got the same treatment: a bullet in the back.
On any night you’d catch them hanging out in apartment complexes with names such as the Casitas, the Pinks and Green Village. They’d lock themselves inside the laundry rooms to smoke methamphetamine, squat in vacant apartments, sell drugs in the parking lots. Romo, whose parents divorced when he was 4, was raised mostly by his paternal grandparents in San Fernando, according to court documents. As a teenager, he supported his grandparents by working for his uncles, who owned a construction business and machine shop.
But Romo’s lawyer, producing letters from his client’s family, neighbors and a former teacher, pleaded with the judge not to write the young man off. “I think that he’s worth saving, judge. That’s all I can say.” Romo envisioned something different, Witness 1 said. The Mexican Mafia needed feet on the ground to realize schemes hatched from prison. Working for three Mexican Mafia members — Frank “Playboy” Fernandez, Raul “Huero Smooth” Garcia and Jose “Cartune” Loza — Blythe Street collected debts, moved drugs and muscled those who needed persuading, Witness 1 testified.
In a gray apartment complex off Blythe Street, a dealer called Chaparro — Shorty — rented three units: one for his family, one for a girlfriend and one “where he cooked his dope,” Witness 1 testified. Chaparro paid Romo every month for the privilege of selling in the gang’s territory, he said. Two months after Delgado’s death, Romo was arrested with half a kilogram of methamphetamine in his car, court records show. He pleaded guilty and was shipped off to the Imperial County desert to serve a four-year term at Centinela State Prison, which would become the “corporate headquarters” for Blythe Street, said Siddall, the deputy district attorney.
The night of Aug. 27, 2017, Alba was waiting outside a Target in Van Nuys for a customer who wanted to trade a phone for methamphetamine. Ramirez, whom she had known for years, was standing outside her window when he opened fire at point-blank range, she testified. Hundreds of messages exchanged between the two men illustrate their relationship: Romo the demanding boss, Molina the fawning middle manager.
Rios had grown up in the gang’s territory and attended Panorama High School until the 11th grade, when he was caught stealing a skateboard and sent to a youth camp, said his sister, who declined to be named. She described Rios as a quiet kid, “very private,” who kept his family and friends separate. Rios started spray-painting “BST, Panorama City, Blythe Street,” Santos Martinez told his cellmate. “I tell him keep on tagging. While he’s tagging, I dome the idiot.”
The night of Nov. 17, 2017, Alexis Saldana, 18, pulled onto Blythe Street with three other members of Columbus Street in his car, yelling “F—is a derogatory term for Blythe Street. “2 more calabazas down,” Molina wrote to Romo the next day, using an insulting term for Columbus Street. “Everything worked out perfecto once again. And smiley was one of them.”According to Witness 2, Molina had taken part in five murders. He’d collected Romo’s money and carried out his orders, putting the gang above all else. “For him, it was his hood, God, then family,” Witness 2 said.Romo would berate Molina for not returning his calls.
tucked a revolver in his waistband, stepped out and was shot in the doorway by his longtime friend, Eder Mendoza, prosecutors charge. Another Blythe Street member, Lorenzo Gonzalez, allegedly acted as the lookout.
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