August 10, 2021 – Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue has dismissed pending murder charges against Mexican Mafia boss Johnny (The Crow) Martinez. The 45-year old Martinez was accused of ordering the 2017 slaying of drug dealer Robert Rios in Placentia, California reportedly for Rios’ refusal to pay “La Eme,” a street tax on his narcotics business.
The case was initially tossed on an appeal related to grand jury evidence procedure, but reinstated and bound over for trial back in March. In May, however, it was revealed that a sheriffs deputy perjured himself on the stand in a pretrial hearing. Martinez is alleged to be the boss of the Mexican Mafia’s Southern California group.
The Mexican Mafia or “La Eme,” was founded in the California prison system in the late 1950s and eventually spread to the outside world. La Eme’s strongholds are in California and Texas, but California’s faction is the most influential. Martinez grabbed power in La Eme three years ago, going from Orange County lieutenant to shot caller to the No. 1 boss of the entire organization, per California State Police records.
Martinez took over from his mentor, Pete (The Fury) Ojeda, the Mexican Mafia’s longtime don, who died of a heart attack in 2018. The rise of the Crow in the organization has resulted in upheaval and wanton violence, both inside and outside prison walls .
The 35-year old Rios was shot to death on his front lawn by a masked team of hit men on January 19, 2017. Besides Martinez, the feds charged seven other La Eme members with Rios’ killing.
Martinez has been behind bars for the past two decades, serving a 15-year prison stint for a murder from the 1990s. He green-lit Rios’ killing from inside Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey, using a smuggled cell phone, according to the indictment filed against him. One of the members of hit team has turned state’s evidence.
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