CHICAGO — A federal jury found Juan Espinoza Martinez not guilty of murder for hire in a case prosecutors linked to alleged messages circulated on Snapchat promising $10,000 for the life of a top Border Patrol official, court reporting said.
Jurors deliberated less than four hours before returning the verdict on Thursday. Espinoza Martinez, described as 37, faced one count of murder for hire and up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the report.
Prosecutors said the government’s case centered on Snapchat messages sent from Espinoza Martinez to his younger brother and to a friend who later proved to be a government informant. One message read in part “10k if u take him down,” along with a picture of Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official who had led aggressive crackdowns, the report said.
In closing arguments, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan told jurors that the messages were not a joke. “Those words do not indicate that this was a joke,” Yonan said, adding, “Those words have meaning. They are not innocent and harmless words.”
Defense attorneys argued the government did not show evidence that Espinoza Martinez threatened anyone. They said the messages were “neighborhood gossip” after he came home from work and unwound with beers, and they said he did not follow up on the exchanges and had only a few dollars in his bank account, the report said.
Dena Singer, a defense attorney, told jurors that “Sending a message about gossip that you heard in the neighborhood, it’s not murder for hire,” and that “It’s not a federal crime.”
Espinoza Martinez did not testify, but his attorneys played clips of his interview with law enforcement. In the footage described in the report, he said, “I didn’t threaten anyone,” and “I’m not saying that I was telling them to do it,” while interchanging English and Spanish at times. The report said the interview clips included his characterization that he was confused about the charges and that he sent the messages without much thought while scrolling social media after work.
After the verdict, the report said attorneys for the defense declined comment. Prosecutors did not address reporters waiting in the lobby of the federal court in downtown Chicago, and jurors did not speak to reporters.
The case was described as the first criminal trial to produce a verdict stemming from a Chicago-area immigration crackdown that began last year. The report said the arrest came in October as the city and surrounding suburbs saw a surge of federal immigration officers, with protests and standoffs becoming common in areas including the city’s heavily Mexican Little Village neighborhood where Espinoza Martinez lived.
The Associated Press report also said the government accused Espinoza Martinez of being “fixated and obsessed” with Bovino and cited other messages in which he criticized the crackdown. It said the prosecution initially referred to Espinoza Martinez as a “ranking member” of the Latin Kings, but U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow barred testimony on the street gang at trial, and the report noted that minor references to the gang came up in the interview.
The report said Espinoza Martinez’s brother, Oscar, testified that he took the Snapchat messages as a joke and that he had already seen them on Facebook. It also said the defense challenged the government’s approach to a key informant witness, Adrian Jimenez, describing Jimenez as a paid government informant who shared the Snapchats with a federal investigator, while Jimenez testified while suffering from back problems.
Singer questioned the premise of the solicitation, telling jurors: “Would you solicit for hire an individual that was in that much pain and could barely walk?” The report said Singer argued the government’s case did not make sense in light of that testimony.
In addition, the report said DHS promoted Espinoza Martinez’s arrest on social media with unredacted photos and referred to him as a “depraved” gang member. It said Bovino has cited the case as an example of dangers faced by federal agents, and it pointed to prior litigation connected to Operation Midway Blitz that, according to the reporting, involved dismissals or drops in about half of roughly 30 criminal cases and a lawsuit in which a judge found Bovino lied under oath, though Bovino did not testify in this trial.