Jury in Mexican Mafia Trial Deliberates Fate of 13 Suspects

A federal jury in the Los Angeles racketeering and conspiracy trial of 13 suspected members and associates of the Mexican Mafia prison gang completed its first day of deliberations Friday without reaching a verdict.

The seven-man, five-woman panel got the case after being instructed for nearly two hours by U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, who presided over the six-month trial.

The defendants are accused of murder, attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking and other crimes in acting as an illicit enterprise to extend the gang’s influence beyond prisons to Los Angeles street gangs.

The complexity of the 29-count case is illustrated by the 23-page verdict form the jurors must fill out. In reaching a verdict on a defendant in Counts 1, 2 and 3, for example, jurors are being asked to determine whether a specific racketeering act is proved against him.

A defendant must be found liable for two racketeering acts before being found guilty of either Count 1, which alleges violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law; Count 2, conspiracy to violate the RICO law; or Count 3, conspiracy to aid and abet in the distribution of illegal drugs.