CHICAGO (AP) — A man accused of offering a $10,000 reward on Snapchat for the life of a top Border Patrol leader was found not guilty Thursday in the first criminal trial sparked by a Chicago-area immigration crackdown.
Jurors deliberated for less than 4 hours before returning a favorable verdict for 37-year-old Juan Espinoza Martinez. He faces murder-for-hire and up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Testimony lasted just a few hours in a federal trial that was the latest test of the Trump administration’s credibility in a federal surge that has played out from Minnesota to Maine.
Espinoza Martinez, who was dressed in a suit and tie, listened intently with a hand on his stomach. He hugged and shook hands with his lawyers after court adjourned.
Defense attorneys declined to comment. Prosecutors did not address reporters waiting in the lobby of a federal courthouse in downtown Chicago. Neither did the judges.
At the heart of the government’s case were Snapchat messages sent from Espinoza Martinez to her younger brother and a fellow government informant. “10k if you bring him down,” read in part, along with a photo of Border Patrol agent Gregory Bovino, who led the nationwide aggressive crackdown, including in the Chicago area.
“These words do not indicate this was a joke,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan told jurors during Thursday’s closing arguments. “Those words have meaning. They are not innocent and harmless words.”
But defense attorneys said the government presented no evidence against Espinoza Martinez who sent the messages as “neighborhood gossip” after coming home from work and drinking beers. He didn’t follow up on exchanges and only had a few dollars in his bank account.
“Sending a message about the gossip you hear in the neighborhood, it’s not murder for hire,” his defense attorney Dena Singer told jurors. “This is not a federal crime.”
His office did not return messages seeking comment after the ruling. Neither did the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago or the Department of Homeland Security.
In court, prosecutors accused Espinoza Martinez of being “fixated and obsessed” with Bovino and cited other messages where he criticized the crackdown.
Espinoza Martinez was arrested in October as the city of 2.7 million and surrounding suburbs were seeing an increase in federal immigration officials. Protests and standoffs with agents were common, especially in the city’s heavily Mexican Little Village neighborhood where Espinoza Martinez lived.
He did not testify at his trial.
But attorneys played clips of his interviews with law enforcement where he said he was confused about the charges and thoughtlessly sent messages while scrolling through social media after work.
“I didn’t threaten anybody,” he told investigators, occasionally alternating between English and Spanish during the interview. “I didn’t say I told them to do it.”
Born in Mexico, he has lived in Chicago for years but does not have citizenship.
DHS followed Espinoza Martinez’s arrest on social media with unflattering photos of his face, referring to him as a “corrupt” gang member. Bovino held up the case as an example of the growing threats federal agents face. The prosecutors included Yonan, the second-highest-ranking federal prosecutor in the Chicago area.
But several federal lawsuits in Chicago have cast doubt on DHS’s stories. Of the nearly 30 criminal cases stemming from Operation Midway Blitz, charges have been dismissed or dropped in about half. In one notable case that forced Bovino to take the stand, a federal judge found he had lied under oath, including about alleged gang threats.
Bovino did not testify at Espinoza Martinez’s trial.
Nationwide, dozens of criminal cases related to immigration operations have also dropped.
Federal prosecutors initially referred to Espinoza Martinez as a “ranking member” of the Latin Kings, but their lack of evidence prevented U.S. District Judge John Lefko from testifying in the Chicago street gang trial. According to the criminal complaint, Espinoza Martinez allegedly sent messages on behalf of the gang to other gang members.
At trial, there was little mention of the gang, with Espinoza Martinez saying in his interview that he had no ties to the Latin Kings. His brother, Oscar, testified that he took the Snapchat messages as a joke and something he saw on Facebook.
Singer poked holes in the government’s case, including the testimony of their first witness, Adrian Jimenez.
The 44-year-old owns a construction company and had been in contact with Espinoza Martinez on Snapchat about work. Unbeknownst to Espinoza Martinez, he had worked as a paid government informant for years after serving time in prison for the crime. He shared the Snapchat with federal investigators.
Jimenez Sakshi, who suffered from back problems, limped to a chair and needed help getting up.
“Would you ask to hire someone who was in a lot of pain and could barely walk?” Singer told the judges. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
