Three O.C. Gang Members Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison for Murdering a Gangster Who’d Fallen Afoul of Mexican Mafia

SANTA ANA, California - Three Orange County street gang members were each sentenced today to life in federal prison for murdering a gangster in August 2017 who had come into conflict with a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang.

Mike Escobar, 43, a.k.a. "Risky," a member of the Little Hood gang in Anaheim; James Mendez, 47, a.k.a. "Buck," a Sureño gang member from Garden Grove; and Kevin Trejo, 38, a.k.a. "Minor," a member of the Jeffrey Street gang in Anaheim, were sentenced by United States District Judge Fred W. Slaughter.

At the conclusion of an eight-day trial, a jury in October 2023 found the defendants guilty of one count of murder in aid of racketeering.

"We will never tolerate violence ordered by imprisoned gangsters operating from behind bars," said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. "Today's life sentences demonstrate our commitment to holding these thugs accountable until their dying day."

According to evidence presented at trial, on August 21, 2017, the defendants murdered the victim, a member of a Costa Mesa street gang. At the time of his murder, the victim trafficked drugs and collected "taxes" from gangs in Orange County for imprisoned Mexican Mafia member Johnny Martinez, 50, a.k.a. "Crow," a co-defendant in this case who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and who is scheduled to go to trial in August 2027.

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 because the victim on two occasions stole drugs and money controlled by Martinez.

The FBI's Los Angeles Field Office; the Orange Police Department; the Santa Ana Police Department; the Anaheim Police Department; the Fullerton Police Department; the Placentia Police Department; the Orange County District Attorney's Office; and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) investigated this matter.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders.

Assistant United States Attorney Greg Staples of the Orange County Office and Trial Attorneys Grace Bowen and Chris Matthews of the Justice Department Criminal Division's Violent Crime and Racketeering Section prosecuted this case, with substantial assistance from Assistant United States Attorney Greg Scally of the Orange County Office.