Jurors watch an agent interview a Chicago man accused of placing a bounty on Bovino’s head

CHICAGO — Shortly after his arrest in early October, small-town construction worker Juan Espinoza Martinez was led into a windowless interview room by three federal agents, still wearing a green work T-shirt and carrying a small bottle of water.

“You’re probably a little confused about what’s going on today, so I’ll try to explain it all to you,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Christopher Perugini told Espinoza Martinez at the start of the Oct. 6 videotaped interview, which was played for a federal jury Wednesday. “Feel free to ask me any questions you want.”

Then, agents asked Espinoza Martinez, a 37-year-old father of three, why he was there.

“Murder for hire?” Espinoza answered questioningly, holding out his hand.

“Right,” said Perugini, “so that’s what you’re charged for.” “I’ll explain it to you as we go.”

Agents then confronted Espinoza Martinez with text messages he had sent to an acquaintance that included a photo of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, who was then the face of Operation Midway Blitz, received what agents portrayed as a cash reward for Bovino’s kidnapping and murder.

During the interview, agents repeatedly pressed Espinoza Martinez about what the messages looked like. He repeatedly said he meant nothing by it, that they were nothing more than social media chats, and that he had no intention of making any real offers for Bovino’s murder.

“I’m really confused about this,” Espinoza said at one point in the interview. “I have no gang affiliation … I’m not around there anywhere. I work for a living everyday. I’m a union worker. I do solid work, so I don’t know.”

Portions of the videotaped interview were played for jurors Wednesday in court as Espinoza Martinez’s trial proceeded before U.S. District Judge Joanne Leff.

Espinoza Martinez, who has lived in Chicago for years but is not a U.S. citizen, is charged with a single count of solicitation of murder for hire, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Espinoza-Martinez told Adrian Jimenez, an acquaintance in the construction business, “that he sent members of the Latin Kings to the area of ​​the shooting at 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue” after shooting a woman near Chicago’s Brighton Park on Oct. 4.

Jimenez, who worked as a government informant for years, called Homeland Security and shared a photo of Bovino in Snapchat messages Espinoza Martinez had sent him, saying “2k in info if you get him” and “10k if you bring him down,” according to prosecutors.

In his opening statement to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Minje Shin said the case involved someone accused of “expressing strong, angry, opinions about immigration enforcement policy” or hating Bovino.

“Make no mistake — the evidence in this case will show that what the defendant did was not a joke, not just gagging, not just blowing off steam behind a keyboard, not a political discourse … what the defendant did was solicitation of murder,” Shinn said.

Sheen said Espinoza was “fixated” on Martinez Bovino, who “faced threats” to arrest, detain and deport members of his community in the small village, a threat that “hit close to home.”

Espinoza Martinez’s attorney, Jonathan Bedi, told the jury in his opening remarks that the case was “mooted” with reasonable doubt because “the government cannot point to anything that shows Juan’s intent.”

“When you cut out all their words … all they have is their guesses and guesses,” Bedi said. “They’re guessing.”

Bedi says there is no money bag, no follow up, no recording, no discussion of plans. No location scouting, no escape routes, no monitoring, no communication saying “the bovinos will have a good time working here”.

“It’s not a federal crime to repeat neighborhood gossip,” he said.

Before Espinoza played Martinez’s taped interview, jurors heard testimony from the informant, Jimenez, who walked slowly through the courtroom with an apparent limp from a back problem he suffered.

Dressed in a blue suit with a salt and pepper beard, Jimenez said he has been in construction for decades and recently started his own construction business. He was also convicted of a felony in 2000 and spent several years in prison.

Although the jury did not hear details of that case, court records show Jimenez was convicted in 2000 of armed robbery and home invasion in Franklin Park. He was later sentenced to six years in prison.

Jimenez told the jury that he had known Espinoza Martinez for “less than a year.” The defendant first contacted him on Snapchat looking for construction work, he said.

Jimenez testified that he took photos of Snapchat messages he received from Espinoza Martinez on Oct. 2 and “almost immediately” contacted agents with HSI.

Jimenez testifies that Espinoza had conversations with Martinez about immigration “more than a few times.”

But when Shin tried to ask what specifically they talked about, the defense repeatedly objected and the judge kept it up.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Dena Singer asked Jimenez a series of questions: You have a family, right? do you work Do you want to continue working and do you want to continue living in America? And you take care of your children?

Jimenez answered “yes” to all of them.

“And not a hired killer, right?” The singer asked,

“No,” Jimenez said.

Singer admitted to Jimenez that Espinoza Martinez never asked for any action against Bovino or to share the message with any wider audience.

Did he ever say “Here’s where Bovino is going to be next?” The singer asked.

“No,” replied Jimenez.

“Does he ever say, “Here’s a picture of the cash,” or “Do I have someone who can pay me all this cash?'”

Jimenez said he had not.

Espinoza Martinez’s trial is the first criminal case from the Operation Midway Blitz to go to trial.

Although limited in scope, the case is expected to provide an important litmus test as immigration-enforcement operations continue to roil other Democrat-led cities long targeted by President Donald Trump, including Chicago and Minneapolis, where the killing of a US citizen by an immigration agent earlier this month sparked nationwide protests.

Top Department of Homeland Security officials held up the case as an example of the violence and threats immigration agents face from gang members and international drug cartels.

In the months since, however, evidence of Espinoza Martinez’s alleged gang affiliation has not been forthcoming. Prosecutors played down that aspect of the case extensively, first omitting mention of gang affiliation in an indictment handed down by a grand jury, then in a pretrial hearing they intended to prove Espinoza Martinez had “affiliations” to the Latin Kings.

On Tuesday, the defense objected to prosecutors presenting a text string where Espinoza Martinez told an unidentified contact: “It’s going down bro my friends are ready in the ville (Little Village). Saints SD and 2 six bitches. Kings in the ass and they’re scared.”

Prosecutors argued that the conversation showed Espinoza Martinez was frustrated that the other gangs were not fighting.

But Lefko, in part for the defense, said the comments in Little Village could be shown to the jury, but not the references to the Latin Saints or the Two-Six gang.

She also excluded Espinoza Martinez’s later text about “Chapo” being the back of the Latin Kings — a reference to former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

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