Defense lawyer Sam Schmidt, defense attorney for Julio Chavez has his work cut out. His client is looking at a first-degree murder charge but helped create the perfect case for a prosecutor: a murder in front of witnesses after which he displayed MS-13 gang signs and allegedly proclaimed “The beast has eaten!” It turns out that the man Chavez allegedly killed, Maurice Parker, 21, was not, as Chavez believed, a Blood. Just a guy wearing a red sweatshirt.
A former MS-13 member is now a witness against Chavez in the killing on May 18, 2007. Jose Molina says that, after shooting Parker, Chavez said “‘Yeah, homie, that’s how you’re supposed to do it. You see the blood coming out of his head?'” He then said, “The beast has eaten!” Molina explained that “he had just given a soul to the devil.”
Schmidt is doing the best he can by challenging the fact that the words were not mentioned in interviews with agents. It is a valid argument but one that is not likely to overcome the impact of the words on a jury or a judge in the Long Island case.
This is an example of the mindless violence that is only likely to get worse as these gangs continue to feed on the drug trade. MS-13 is arguably the most dangerous of these gangs with a history of vicious attacks, often cutting off limbs with machetes.
Source: NY Daily
You are wrong. Gangs such as MS 13 come from a prison gang that started in California know as the Mexican Mafia, which started in 1957. Drug trafficking is only one of a number of criminal activities in which they rely on to get money.
“Street gangs are in no way a product of the war on drugs.”
You are wrong. the prevalence of street gangs saw their rise in the late 70’sw and 80’s and had a direct correlation with the spread of cocaine.
“Another side effect of The War on [Some] Drugs.”
Street gangs are in no way a product of the war on drugs. That they fund their enterprise with drug money is only because of convenience. While I do agree that some drugs should be legal, legalizing them will in no way deal with the problems caused by individuals like Julio Chavez.
Excerpts from Joe Guzzardi:
“Salinas—birthplace of American novelist John Steinbeck and the town that hosts wranglers from across the country every summer at the 100-year-old California Rodeo—has been transformed into a place I, a native-born Californian, no longer recognize…
According to Census 2000, 70% of Salinas’ 150,000 residents are Hispanic…
Salinas has one of the nation’s most chilling crime rate profiles (Salinas CA Crime Statistics (2002 – New Crime Data). Based on 2002 Federal Bureau of Investigation crime statistics, Salinas is above the national average in the following:
CRIME TIMES GREATER THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE
Murder 2.3 X
Forcible Rape 1.25 X
Robberies 1.75X
Aggravated Assault 1.5X
Burglaries (At National Average)
Larceny/Petty Theft 1.25X
Vehicle Theft 1.4X
During the last ten years, the annual number of homicides in Salinas tripled. (Three-quarters of these were gang related.) The Salinas Police Department identified 14 street gangs with more than 400 certified and active gang members…
A piece of unsolicited advice for travelers: If you are ever in Salinas, leave before sundown…” Dec. 2004
It’s simply another sign of the on-going break down of society and civilization. The slow motion train wreck of a corporatocracy continuously degrading the environment (which of course impacts all of us) all the way to disfunctional families and derelict schools providing breeding grounds for these gangs – it’s all connected.
Buddha,
You are going to scare the Arizona crowd talking about those Mexicans!
“Perhaps people will wake up when we are at war with a Mexico ruled by the drug gangs we have empowered.”
Coming soon to a border near you.
Considering that the War on Drugs can’t even be won in prisons, why do we continue to fool ourselves?
Some drugs may indeed harm users, and yet the War on Drugs has shattered basic liberties for all. Like the War on Terror, society won’t care about lost liberties until it is far too late to matter.
Perhaps people will wake up when we are at war with a Mexico ruled by the drug gangs we have empowered.
Yes, he gave a soul to the devil all right….
I agree that we should decriminalize drugs, but this guy is long gone. He needs to spend the rest of his days as a guest of the State.
Starve the beast, decriminalize drugs!
Another side effect of The War on [Some] Drugs.
Yeah… that guy is cool. Seriously, it pisses me off so much reading stories like this. The only thing that infuriates me more is when juries somehow let guys like these off. Makes you want to rethink whether jury nullification is really such a bad thing after all: http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2011/03/03/informing-the-public-of-jury-nullification-is-it-jury-tampering/
Are they the real trouble….or are we smoke screening the issue so the government can focus on other core non prosecuted crimes….