He and his wife moved to Boise, Idaho, where he hoped the slow pace would help him start over. He told his commander that hed received an order from Cuete to kill two deputy district attorneys, a husband and wife team in San Jose named Kitty and Charles Constantinides. Lizard said that whenever brothers were allowed into the law library, they used sign language to swap information, trade intelligence reports, and even assign homework. But rumors about G.U.N. Under federal law, its rather easy to be declared a coconspirator in a RICO case. The prosecutors revealed that Gratton would testify Sir Dyno dealt meth on his behalf. Shortly thereafter, his client pleaded guilty for a chance at parole, but remained adamant that Lizard had given him the green light. He was betraying these people hed come up with, people hed been close to. Most importantly, he showed a willingness to draw sureo blood. He could shank n roll, as the prisoners say. Assistant US Attorney Steven Gruel responded in court papers that federal agents couldnt be blamed for failing to notify the victim, since Sanchez already knew that he had serious problems with Heredias gang (in fact, he had been hiding). Gruel also offered four instances in which Lizards testimony did lead FBI agents to inform Norteos they were marked for death. and manufacturers. There are 150,000 pages of discovery to sort through, photographs from dozens of crime scenes, audiotapes from hours of hidden wires, and hours of surveillance videos. The rappers story varies somewhat depending on whos doing the telling. Gratton, meanwhile, had Sir Dyno write out a business plan, which offers a glimpse of the rappers instinct to use shock value to boost sales: By releasing G.U.N. Lizard swung his weight around hard. Cuete arranged for the new hotshot to move into his cell. Holguin and his team came up empty that night. His wife had declined to enter witness protection until the trial arrived. Frias was not indicted in the federal case but was convicted of murdering Sanchez in a state case built on the FBI's investigation. If it read Hello Love!, it was every eighth word. I was giving them a taste of something they wanted for a long time. He said he felt no jitters, nor did he question his loyalties to the brothers he was betraying. The report counted nearly seven thousand cases of inmate assault in the states 32 institutions, along with nine murders that year, a steady increase over the past decade. They werent following what NF was about, he said. In the early 1970s, gang fights which were called race riots then became more common inside the prisons. Lizard claimed Norteo. Im a Northerner, he says, arms wide. Along with Crooked and other Bay Area rhymers, the Darkroom Familia took off as a twelve-member supergroup, touring across the West on their own dime, all of them touting the street thug lifestyle. But within a few months, Nato got pinched for robbery, and with his long rap sheet, he got 39 years. Three leaders soon emerged at Pelican Bay, filling the ranks of the gang's mesa, or board of directors: David "DC" Cervantes of Chino, Jose "Huerito" Gonzalez and James "Conejo" Perez. Once that dried, the correspondent would write another letter in ink on the page, but the recipient knew to hold it up to the light to read the real message. A grand jury indictment was in the works. Two months later, the leaders met again at the Los Robles Lodge in Santa Rosa. All of these directives were channeled through him. As he awaits his new sentence, Lizard also awaits his new identity. After three decades, Nuestra Familia is now an institution on Northern California streets and is spreading rapidly through the suburbs of the Central Valley, gang investigator Lewis said. He told them about killing Brown Bob. The former leaders include James "Tibbs" Morado, Joseph "Pinky" Hernandez, Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba, Cornelio Tristan, and Tex Marin Hernandez. One such order last year told Norte-os across Northern California to clean the streets of Sure-os. Prison gang members set to testify against Nuestra Familia leaders. Rapper David Rocha thought a norteo gangsta CD was his ticket to glory -- not life in prison. They were, according to the government, members of Nuestra Familia, Northern Californias most notorious and ruthless prison gang. January 22,2001 A member of the Mexican Mafia, Ortiz was cast out of the criminal organization in the mid-1990s after angering . But if we want to prepare these people for integration to society, maybe we need to integrate them in the prison first, get them used to living with different peoples.. I even convinced the government that Im this crazy guy.. Any Nuestra Familia member who betrayed his fellow carnals was subject to article two, section five of the groups constitution: AN AUTOMATIC DEATH SENTENCE WILL BE PUT ON FAMILIANO THAT TURNS TRAITOR, COWARD, OR DESSERTER [sic]. By the time he turned 25, Dyno had carved his own niche as a Chicano gangsta rapper, mixing Spanish with English. Lizard said Bob was marked because hed stuck his nose into matters that didnt concern him. But at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. s success filtered back up to Pelican Bay, and Gratton began receiving frequent letters from his boss, Gerald Cuete Rubalcaba. Following instructions from the generals, Cuete put out a hit on Brown Bob. walls at Pelican Bay State Prison to carry out the crimes. Hes got a future. His father sold vacuum cleaners; his mother was a housewife. He said that was where he picked up the nickname Lizard, from friends who admired his clandestine nature.. How could he go back in with Cuete wanting him dead? Fourteen of those charged in federal court in Los Angeles and Santa Ana . But I knew more about Cuete and his family, and he did about mine. All rights reserved. Lizard also sent Crazy Girl a decoding list, known in FBI documents as The Salutation Code. In each letter he wrote, the greeting unlocked a key to the rest of the letter. Gerald Marvin Rubalcaba of Visalia, age 45, was arrested for Possession of Controlled Substance Violation Parole: Felony Reckless Driving Evading P.O. Violence was averted in those cases, Gruel said. Still Sir Dyno says he wasnt getting paid. SAN JOSE - A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 17 defendants with racketeering conspiracy, including acts involving murder, robbery, drug trafficking, and money laundering, and charging five others with drug trafficking-related crimes. If they come for him, he said, he worries only for them, his enemies. Roy Morales. Sir Dyno wanted to make a name for himself, Lewis says, so he sold his soul to the devil. Even though he was broke and sleeping on friends couches, Sir Dyno felt he was on the cusp of the big time, ready to break. He said he knows they may try to find him, but that he will not hide. The cases were spread across Northern California. After that, he said, I didnt want any speculation coming my way because we still had meetings to take care of. Lizard said he compensated by assisting in unauthorized drug and arms deals. Natos harsh sentence made Lizard rethink his lifes path. He says theres a street code: You dont ever ask too many questions, and both men stuck to that code. In her written response, she pointed out the governments logical error: All NF members and associates are norteos; David is a norteo. In November 1998, he was pulled over on a traffic violation. Joe Gonzales orders the murder of familiano Richard Hernandez for failing to carry out orders. Gang affiliation in California is often a matter of geography, but for Daniel Hernandez it wasnt that simple. For norteos, it was a rallying call, with a cruising, bounce-your-shocks soundtrack. If Nuestra Familia invested in meth labs, a network was already in place. Under the federal RICO laws used to indict criminal organizations like Nuestra Familia, anyone who knowingly associates with one member of a gang becomes part of it and if the gang goes down, so does he. Despite the governor's complaints, all five are still housed in the same supermax unit. "There's family members still loyal to the guys in the fed," he said, referring to the exiled former generals and captains in Colorado. Lo-fi beats backed simple, repetitive keyboard riffs. It looked like they were unhappy with the content of G.U.N., Manson says, and thats why David was indicted for the content of his music. Its the life story of a petty hood who reached his full criminal potential only afterentering the California prison system. While Nuestra Familia is primarily a Chicano gang, membership sometimes extends to other Latinos as well as non-Latinos. According to one source, Ribota took the CD to the San Joaquin County district attorneys office to see if it constituted an official threat to a police officer. Ultimately itll be a jurys role to sort out the truth, but this much everybody can agree on: In 1997 an NF captain named Robert Huerito Gratton was paroled from Pelican Bay State Prison, moved to Modesto, and started a label called North Star Records. crimes from Salinas to the Oregon border. Last year, a newly revised constitution for the gang was distributed through underground channels, allowing for change in the mesa's structure, said Santa Cruz County sheriff's Sgt. That what I decided to do.. Click here to follow the step-by-step murder of Brown Bob, as conducted from inside prison walls. He just happened to have this talent, and he put this talent to use.. While Sanchez sipped beer, Frias met Martinez at his car. Though vastly outnumbered, Nuestra Familia distinguished itself by organizing its troops along strict paramilitary lines. If Sir Dynos case were only about lyrics, its likely the First Amendment would swiftly end the debate in his favor. But in a coup d'etat of sorts, Gonzalez and Perez have been "demoted" to "Category 1," the lowest level of the Nuestra Familia, investigators say. She disguised her own missives as legal mail from a fictitious San Francisco attorney and sent them directly back into the Secured Housing Unit, where all three gang generals were locked up. From the prisons to the jails, all over California, you have to claim a side, Vasquez said. When the state-of-the-art super-max penitentiary opened in 1989, built exclusively for the states 2,800 most violent inmates, Governor George Deukmejian hailed it a model for the rest of the nation. Instead, it has become a model gang incubator. Even now, he talks about the incident with the distance that soldiers put between themselves and their wartime deeds. It gives you something to do. I am just as dangerous as they are.. Not far from Tristan sat Rico Smiley Garcia, facing the death penalty for carrying out his bosses orders and putting two bullets in the back of Castillos head. The Norte-os are trying to establish (in Salinas) but every time they try to, there's shootouts." The rationale for the federal case, officials said, was to cripple the gang's power base . For instance, if Lizard wrote Hey Love, that meant that every third word was part of the real message. Holguin was well known to Nuestra Familia members hed interviewed hundreds of them during his three decades in the system. And in every fashion when necessity called for it, I wanted the NF hierarchy to recognize my loyalty and dedication to NF. Then at fourteen, Hernandez began to glimpse a different world. The 13 defendants, six of them from Pelican Bay, are currently housed at a maximum security prison in North County Jail in Oakland where . He returned to San Quentin in June of 1994 to begin his sentence. 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