L.A. gang leader ‘Wicked’ stabbed to death in California prison

Ezequiel Romo, a gang leader who ordered murders of rivals and followers alike in a bid to maintain control over drug and collection rackets in Panorama City, was stabbed to death Sunday at Centinela State Prison, authorities said.

Romo, 47, was serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole after being convicted last year of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

He had recently been transferred to Centinela, a 3,000-man prison in the Imperial County desert. Around 8 p.m. on Sunday, officials said in a statement, three inmates attacked him in a day room.

The assailants — identified by prison officials as Cristian Moreno, Johnny S. Garcia and Christian O. Hernandez — did not stop stabbing Romo until guards used four “applications” of pepper spray, authorities said. Romo was pronounced dead about two hours later.

Romo, nicknamed “Wicked,” had previously been released from prison in 2014 after serving 18 years for manslaughter and assaulting another inmate. He returned to his old neighborhood of Panorama City intent on bringing his gang into line, witnesses testified at his trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Traffic streams through the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Blythe Street.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

Blythe Street, a gang that takes its name from a few crowded blocks between Van Nuys Boulevard and Brimfield Avenue, was in Romo’s view plagued with “dirty homeboys,” according to a former associate who testified against him.

The witness said Romo intended to purge the gang of snitches, drug users and anyone he perceived as disloyal. He wanted Blythe Street to work under the Mexican Mafia, the syndicate that controlled the prisons where he’d spent the last 18 years.

“His thing was making things right for them people,” the witness said. “Taking care of people in the county [jail]. It sounded good, but a lot of violence came after.”

Felipe Delgado died Nov. 10, 2015, after being shot behind an apartment building on Kester Avenue in Panorama City.

(Los Angeles County Superior Court)

According to testimony, the first murder that Romo orchestrated was for his own profit. The witness testified that Romo bought a kilogram of cocaine on credit, then arranged for a young member of Blythe Street to kill the dealer, Felipe Delgado, so he would not have to pay for it.

Two months after Delgado was gunned down behind a Kester Avenue apartment complex, Romo was arrested on drug charges. He pleaded guilty and was sent to serve four years at Centinela, where, with a contraband cellphone, he maintained a stranglehold over Blythe Street, witnesses testified.

In a photo presented in court as an exhibit, Isidro Alba was killed inside his Dodge Avenger the night of Aug. 27, 2017.

(Los Angeles Superior Court)

Isidro “Topo” Alba, a Blythe Street veteran who clashed with Romo, was lured to a Target on Raymer Street. Waiting for what he thought was a drug deal, Alba was ambushed. Two gunmen riddled his Dodge Avenger with bullets, killing Alba and narrowly missing his girlfriend in the passenger seat.

After the bullets stopped flying, she ran into the street to flag down an oncoming car — only to realize it was being driven by the shooters. They got out and opened fire, according to video footage played in court, but somehow missed her again.

One of the men who killed Alba and shot at his girlfriend was Oscar “Smoky” Molina, Romo’s fawning right-hand man. From Molina’s phone, detectives recovered WhatsApp messages sent to Romo pledging to “always have ure back as long as I am around.”

Oscar Molina, a veteran of Blythe Street called “Smoky,” became Ezequiel Romo’s right-hand man after Romo was sent back to prison in 2016.

(Los Angeles County Superior Court)

“Gracias for ur words,” Romo wrote back. “They r a gift I accept more than money or shiny objects.”

In his WhatsApp messages, Romo wrote of demanding “complete control” of Panorama City, described himself as a “general” and his gang as an “empire,” and said of his management style: “Some say I’m too hands on.”

According to a witness close to Molina, Romo ordered him to “take care of” a young Blythe Street hanger-on, Carlos Rios. The 21-year-old’s sin: tattooing his face with a “B” without first being inducted into the gang. Rios was shot in the back while spray-painting Blythe Street graffiti on a wall on Valerio Street.

Carlos Rios was spray-painting a fence in Van Nuys when he was shot in the back on Oct. 28, 2017.

(Los Angeles County Superior Court)

Molina kept Romo informed about other killings in the neighborhood, according to his WhatsApp messages. After Santos “Raider” Martinez, an 18-year-old Blythe Street member, gunned down a rival gangster and a bystander who happened to be sitting next to him on a bus bench, Molina wrote to Romo: “Everything worked out perfecto once again.”

“Good to know…” Romo replied. “Gracias b safe!!!”

Before long, however, their relationship soured. Romo dressed down Molina for missing his calls. Molina whined about Romo’s nitpicking. “Sometimes I’m not having a good day,” he told his boss.

Early one morning in 2018, Molina stepped out of his Tobias Avenue apartment and was shot in the doorway by an old friend, Eder “Mousey” Mendoza, prosecutors charged. A witness testified that Romo ordered Molina’s death because he’d been caught lying, he owed people money and he was using drugs.

Isidro Alba was murdered inside his Dodge Avenger the night of Aug. 27, 2017 by fellow members of his gang, Blythe Street.

(Los Angeles Superior Court)

Twelve days later, Mendoza and another Blythe Street member, Lorenzo “Scooby” Gonzalez, picked up a woman named Karen Tobar in an unlicensed “bandit cab,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.

Tobar, 23, had been in Molina’s apartment just before he was killed. Believing she’d talked to the police, Mendoza and Gonzalez stabbed her to death at Carey Ranch Park in Sylmar, prosecutors allege. Both men have pleaded not guilty to murdering Molina and Tobar.

In August, Gonzalez was charged with murdering his cellmate in a downtown Los Angeles lockup, Joseph “Capone” Hutchinson.

Hutchinson, 51, was a longtime associate of Michael “Mosca” Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who for years controlled the Los Angeles County jail system.

Considered by law enforcement to be the dominant organized crime figure in the San Fernando Valley, Torres, 59, was killed last July at California State Prison, Sacramento, where he was serving 133 years to life for attempted murder, witness tampering and other crimes.

A month later, Hutchinson was found stabbed and beaten to death in the cell he shared with Gonzalez in the 2400 module of Men’s Central Jail, according to a coroner’s report. Gonzalez, 27, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hutchinson.