00:00:03
[ominous music] NARRATOR: Locked up
in the United States of America are some of the world's
most lethal criminals.
00:00:13
One of the deadliest prisoners
of all was Ezequiel Romo. ERIC SIDDALL: The man would do
anything for money and power.
00:00:22
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: His
charisma was evident, but I detested him. He was truly evil.
00:00:28
NARRATOR: At only 18 years
old, Romo took his first life. Then rose
to prominence, becoming
00:00:34
the leader of the Blythe
Street gang. NATE GARTRELL: He was
planning a gang takeover.
00:00:39
A lot of people were about to
get murdered because of this. ERIC SIDDALL: They shoot
dozens and dozens of times
00:00:47
into the car. NARRATOR: Even being imprisoned
didn't slow Romo down. He still ran the streets
from his cell,
00:00:57
killing with just a cell phone. LINA HAJI: What made
him even more dangerous is that he was able to have
other people do it for him.
00:01:07
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: Karen
Tobar was a young female. They stabbed her 32
times to send a message,
00:01:13
you will not talk
to the police, or Mr. Romo will
have you killed. NATE GARTRELL: People in his
own gang are getting killed,
00:01:21
and innocent bystanders
are getting killed. It's hard to imagine who
would safe at this point
00:01:26
from this guy. LINA HAJI: It's almost
like a video game. It's so easy for him
to take away a human life.
00:01:35
[theme music] NARRATOR: Centinela
State Prison is located in Southern
California, just miles
00:02:09
from the Mexican border. NATE GARTRELL: It's
a prison that currently houses about 3,000 people.
00:02:14
It's designed to house
about 2,300 people. Centinela State Prison is one
of these concrete boxes that
00:02:24
the state of California built
kind of as fast as possible in the 1990s to accommodate
this prison population
00:02:31
that was just, like,
sweeping through the state like a tidal wave. And it was largely
fueled by gang violence.
00:02:41
NARRATOR: The gang warfare
carried over from the streets to the jails
and penitentiaries.
00:02:48
Prominent members were placed
in special secure housing units. NATE GARTRELL: That's
where gang leaders go,
00:02:56
with the lights
on 24/7 and human contact completely limited. They're being isolated because
the system is scared enough
00:03:05
of what putting them
in general population would mean in terms of their
influence and their ability
00:03:10
to kind of wreak havoc
or further gang activity. NARRATOR: One gang
leader, who was still
00:03:16
able to orchestrate a reign
of terror from his cell, was the ruthless
killer Ezequiel Romo.
00:03:24
[stirring music] ERIC SIDDALL: Romo was
super ambitious, smart. He was savvy. I think he's one of those guys
that if he had not been running
00:03:39
a gang and had been born
in a different zip code, he probably would be
running a hedge fund.
00:03:46
LINA HAJI: He had
leadership skills, but he used these
skills for evil. He used these skills for harm.
00:03:55
NATE GARTRELL: He's
stuck in a prison cell. And there's something
like nine funerals
00:03:59
that we know of have resulted
from his desire for power. NARRATOR: Ezequiel Romo
was born in Los Angeles,
00:04:11
April 27, 1977. He grew up
in the Panorama City area of the San Fernando Valley.
00:04:21
ERIC SIDDALL: Panorama City
has about 50,000 people. It is mainly a working
class Latino neighborhood.
00:04:29
NARRATOR: Little is known
about Romo's childhood, other than his parents
divorced when he was 4,
00:04:35
and he was mostly raised
by his paternal grandparents. LINA HAJI: One can only
imagine that if a child is not
00:04:43
being raised
by their biological parents, for whatever
reasons, and knowing that their biological parents
are still in the world,
00:04:50
that could alter the child's
ability to trust people. Even if the child has
a positive relationship
00:04:58
with his or her guardians,
there's still this idea of, why didn't my parents raise me?
00:05:03
What was going on? Is it my fault? As a result of that,
they can sometimes have difficulties navigating
interpersonal relationships
00:05:12
throughout childhood,
adolescence, and even into adulthood. NARRATOR: From the outside,
Romo's home life
00:05:21
appeared stable. NATE GARTRELL: My name
is Nate Gartrell, and I'm a crime reporter
working in California.
00:05:32
Romo grew up kind
of in a typical environment for people in Panorama City. He had grandparents who
made an honest living, who
00:05:41
owned businesses,
a construction business and I think a metal
shop or something like that.
00:05:47
I don't think that
his upbringing strayed too far out of the norm. NARRATOR: But there was
a darker side to Panorama City.
00:05:59
Criminal gangs
roamed the streets. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: My name is
Detective Gabriel Bucknell.
00:06:08
I'm with the LAPD Valley
Bureau Homicide Unit. I would say more than
half of our homicides
00:06:14
in the Valley are gang-related. They're mostly all warring
with each other over territory.
00:06:20
NARRATOR: The Blythe Street
gang were the big players in Romo's hometown. ERIC SIDDALL: Blythe Street
is a criminal street gang that
00:06:28
exists here in Panorama city. A lot of members
of Blythe Street were born in the neighborhood,
raised in the neighborhood.
00:06:36
They grew up there. And it's-- it really
tries to dominate the area of Panorama City.
00:06:43
GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
Their stronghold is Blythe Street,
of course, which is in the middle of that area.
00:06:49
Blythe Street is
structured much like any other Hispanic gang. You have the leadership
or management of the gang.
00:06:56
You have members
of the gang who are responsible for selling drugs. You have members
of the gang that
00:07:02
are responsible
for obtaining guns. You have new young members
of the gang that are out
00:07:08
tagging on the walls, stealing,
committing assaults and thefts in the neighborhood.
00:07:17
NARRATOR: In the early '90s,
when he was in his teens, Romo fell under the spell
of the Blythe Street gang.
00:07:25
NATE GARTRELL: I think
that if you grow up in certain parts
of Los Angeles, that temptation is
always going to be there.
00:07:31
Your peer groups and the older
siblings of the neighborhoods and all these people
at school and stuff
00:07:37
like that are already
involved in gangs. You grow up, you have a best
friend, he joins a gang.
00:07:44
You're going to feel that
pressure to follow suit. And also growing up, at a
certain point, your parents or
00:07:48
your grandparents
or whoever's raising you, they kind of lose
that influence. And it gets replaced
by your peer structure.
00:07:58
LINA HAJI: From
the outside, it's easy to say, wow, joining
a gang is a really dumb idea.
00:08:05
It's more complex
than that, especially for a young adolescent
who is looking to build a support system
and a sense of identity
00:08:15
and a sense of belonging. So it's not that
far-fetched that Romo, having seemingly come
from a stable family,
00:08:25
would still be interested
in joining a gang. NARRATOR: 18-year-old Romo
also had a violent side,
00:08:36
a trait that fitted
well into gang life, and one that would explode
when he got into a dispute with
00:08:44
19-year-old Manuel Avila, who
was allegedly part of a rival gang's tagging crew.
00:08:51
[ominous music] NATE GARTRELL: Manuel Avila
and Ezequiel Romo, they are behind a hamburger
stand on Roscoe Boulevard
00:09:03
in Los Angeles. Some sort of argument arose. Avila allegedly punched
Romo in the face,
00:09:10
and Romo responded
by pulling out a gun, shooting Avila
in the chest several times.
00:09:22
Avila was killed,
and then Romo ran away. LINA HAJI: Maybe
he was absolutely terrified of his opponent.
00:09:31
Maybe he felt inferior
to his opponent. But for some reason, Romo
escalated extremely quickly
00:09:37
using a gun immediately. Perhaps he wanted
to gain some street cred and be known as somebody
not to be messed with and
00:09:45
somebody to be respected. For a fistfight to jump right
into immediately shooting
00:09:51
someone multiple
times is really a big red flag
for what's to come, because it seems
like an overreaction.
00:10:02
NARRATOR: Through
witnesses, police were quickly able to identify
and apprehend Romo.
00:10:09
For the killing
of Manuel Avila, he would eventually
plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter
with a firearm enhancement
00:10:17
and was sentenced to 10
years in state prison. NATE GARTRELL: At Romo
sentencing hearing,
00:10:22
there was this kind
of debate about, OK, he's a young man, how much should we
throw the book at him or not.
00:10:27
And, obviously, Avila's family
was pretty upset that he was only getting 10 years.
00:10:32
And they said,
you know, they're concerned that he's
going to come back and he's going to keep
on hurting people.
00:10:39
NARRATOR: On January
1, 1997, aged 19, Romo entered the California
Correctional system,
00:10:47
ending up at Sacramento
State Prison, where he quickly fell under
the influence of another gang,
00:10:53
the Mexican Mafia. NATE GARTRELL:
The Mexican Mafia is probably the most powerful
prison gang in California.
00:11:00
Able to control a lot
of what goes on amongst gangs and in society at large. GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
The Mexican Mafia
00:11:10
controls all
of the Hispanic gangs that operate on the streets
in Southern California.
00:11:16
They're not allowed to sell
drugs or do business on the street without
paying some form of tax
00:11:22
to the Mexican Mafia. LINA HAJI: Romo, he was 19. He was given
a 10-year sentence.
00:11:29
He could have taken
that time to turn his life around and potentially
seek out rehabilitation.
00:11:38
But he was very drawn
to the dark side. [stirring music] ERIC SIDDALL: Romo
really started
00:11:51
becoming involved in the
politics of the Mexican Mafia while he was in prison. He was a secretary
for one of the leaders
00:11:59
of the Mexican Mafia. That's almost like
an apprenticeship. LINA HAJI: Romo had a good
resume, if you will,
00:12:06
for joining a prison gang. And I say that
because he was young. And for older
members of a gang,
00:12:14
they typically view that
as somebody who can be molded. In addition, Romo
was already in prison
00:12:20
at such a young age
for manslaughter, which would have given
him criminal cloud, which
00:12:25
would have caught the attention
of the Mexican Mafia as somebody who might
be useful to them.
00:12:35
NARRATOR: But to truly join
a gang like the Mexican Mafia, Romo would have to get
more blood on his hands.
00:12:43
NATE GARTRELL:
Sometimes gang leaders feel like they need
to kill somebody just to kind of remind the other
prisoners that you
00:12:48
can't step out of line. And stabbings can
definitely be something that can be considered
a way for someone
00:12:54
who wants to become
a prison gang member to prove their worth. NARRATOR: Be it an initiation
test, no one can be sure.
00:13:02
But in 2003, Romo and fellow
prisoner Marcos Avalos prepared to attack another inmate.
00:13:10
NATE GARTRELL: They
took the trouble to make knives, which take some time. So, obviously, it wasn't like
a spur of the moment thing,
00:13:16
where you just see somebody
and you just stomp on them. It was a little bit more
planned out than that.
00:13:25
NARRATOR: Romo
and Avalos waited for their moment to get close
to their target and pounced.
00:13:33
Correctional officers
heard the disturbance and stopped Romo
and his accomplice assaulting the inmate.
00:13:42
NATE GARTRELL: They
didn't kill him, but they injured
him badly enough that they were prosecuted.
00:13:50
NARRATOR: Romo and Avalos
were both convicted of assault with
a deadly weapon while
00:13:54
confined in a state prison. NATE GARTRELL: Romo ended
up with another 8 years on top of the 10 he
was already serving.
00:14:02
LINA HAJI: It's actually
mindblowing how many times inmates sacrifice their own
freedom and their own potential
00:14:09
to be released from
prison, their own family, their own well-being
for the gang.
00:14:15
NARRATOR: In June 2005,
Romo was officially validated as a Mexican
Mafia gang member
00:14:22
by the Department
of Corrections and transferred to one
of California's most notorious prisons, Pelican Bay.
00:14:30
NATE GARTRELL: Once someone
is labeled as a gang member or as a gang
associate, they can
00:14:35
get locked down
in segregated housing or in solitary confinement. And that goes doubly
if they're considered
00:14:42
an actual prison gang member. So that's what happened to
hundreds of people who ended up
00:14:46
in the Pelican
Bay Shu, which is kind of known as a prison
within a prison, because they were validated.
00:14:53
NARRATOR: Romo had
entered prison aged 19, and he would remain
there until he was 37.
00:15:00
On November 14, 2014, he
was released on parole. Inspired by his dealings
with the Mexican Mafia,
00:15:10
Romo went back to Blythe
Street with big plans. Behaving wasn't one of them. ERIC SIDDALL: Romo made
a decision that he was going
00:15:20
to take over Blythe Street. Even though he was younger than
some people that were there,
00:15:25
he was extremely ambitious. He was shrewd,
and he was smart. And I think people
recognized that.
00:15:34
GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
Mr. Romo was given the nickname Wicked because he
was exceptionally violent.
00:15:39
He was ruthless. As he became more popular and
put in more work for the gang, he rose up through the ranks
to ultimately become the street
00:15:47
level leader of the gang. NARRATOR: Despite
his nickname Wicked, Romo was charismatic
and cunning enough
00:15:55
to present different
sides to different people. NATE GARTRELL:
During this time,
00:16:00
he had a note from
his parole officer who said that he appeared to be
doing well and reintegrating
00:16:05
back into society, and that
he appeared to be starting to go down the right path.
00:16:11
And in reality, he was
planning a gang takeover, and a lot of people
were about to get
00:16:17
murdered because of this. [ominous music] NARRATOR: The first person
to appear on Romo's hit list
00:16:29
was Felipe Delgado. ERIC SIDDALL: So Felipe
Delgado was a local drug dealer within Blythe Street.
00:16:37
He was not a Blythe
street gang member. NATE GARTRELL: Either
because he trusted him enough
00:16:41
or because he was
scared of him, he fronted a kilo of cocaine
to Romo with the promise
00:16:47
that he would be paid
back at a certain time. ERIC SIDDALL: Romo,
Wicked, he didn't
00:16:53
want to have to pay him back. Like, a kilo of cocaine,
I think at that time was worth about $25,000.
00:16:58
So what Wicked did
was he started saying that Delgado was a snitch. There's no evidence whatsoever
that Delgado was cooperating
00:17:05
with law enforcement. Wicked created this story so
that it would give him a reason
00:17:14
to be able to kill Delgado. NARRATOR: This time,
Romo would have to get someone else
to pull the trigger,
00:17:26
as he had been
released from prison wearing a tracking device. ERIC SIDDALL: He knew
that if the GPS system had
00:17:35
him present during
the actual murder of Delgado, he would be a suspect
and he would eventually
00:17:42
go to prison for that murder. They recruited a guy named
Mendoza, who was an up and
00:17:48
comer within the gang. NARRATOR: Romo called Delgado
and arranged a time and place
00:17:54
to meet up on the pretense
he was going to pay him back for the cocaine. ERIC SIDDALL: That's
when Mendoza popped
00:18:00
out and murdered Delgado. [ominous music] He doesn't die immediately. He's taken to the hospital.
00:18:23
But then he eventually dies. It showed you how
ruthless Wicked is. I mean, the man would do
anything for money and power.
00:18:33
And killing someone
for $25,000 is pretty ruthless. LINA HAJI: What's
interesting about this murder
00:18:44
is that Romo is not
this impulsive killer that we may have thought
he was when he was younger.
00:18:50
His first crime
being, you know, a fistfight, where he pulled
out a gun and killed somebody.
00:18:55
This is very planned and
orchestrated and calculated. This is a very
different kind of crime.
00:19:05
NARRATOR: It was
just over a year since he got out of prison. And after this murder, Romo was
now the self-proclaimed leader
00:19:13
of the Blythe Street gang. ERIC SIDDALL: Romo was the shot
caller of Blythe Street.
00:19:18
That means he ran everything
within Blythe Street gang. So everything from
who to sell drugs to,
00:19:26
who was going
to sell the drugs, who they were going
to buy their guns from, and if they were
going to sell guns.
00:19:31
That's what a shot caller
is, and that's what he was. NARRATOR: Romo ran the streets.
00:19:39
But two months after
Felipe Delgado's murder, he would be back behind bars. NATE GARTRELL: He gets caught
with, like, distribution
00:19:48
quantity of methamphetamine. I think it was about a pound. And so because of his
criminal past,
00:19:53
he's obviously on parole
for manslaughter. He gets another multi-year
prison sentence.
00:20:00
NARRATOR: On June 27, 2016,
pleading guilty to drugs charges, Romo was
given four years.
00:20:08
This time, he was sent
to Centinela State Prison. NATE GARTRELL:
He ends up there,
00:20:15
but he's got a release date. He's got an end in sight. It's a nonviolent offense.
00:20:20
He's probably only going
to have to do half his time, and then he's back
out on the streets.
00:20:25
But maybe not. NARRATOR: From his cell,
Romo was still running the Blythe Street gang.
00:20:33
GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
Mr. Romo would often obtain cell phones
that were illegally smuggled into the prison.
00:20:40
ERIC SIDDALL: The cell phones
were being brought in by drones or by staffers. These inmates would purchase
them for about $1,500.
00:20:48
You had to be pretty high
up to be able to purchase these cell phones. Romo, he would have
regular conference calls
00:20:56
with his soldiers in the field. It would be
on speakerphone, and he would be handing out orders
left and right to his soldiers
00:21:06
out in Blythe Street
of what to do. NARRATOR: Oscar Molina,
also known as Smokey,
00:21:15
was Romo's right hand man. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: All
the day-to-day operations on Blythe Street gang and the
rules set forth by Mr. Romo
00:21:23
were enforced by Oscar Molina. So Mr. Romo would communicate
with Oscar Molina almost daily.
00:21:31
NATE GARTRELL: There was sort
of this mutual admiration and respect that you could see
from their text communications.
00:21:37
At the same time, there
wasn't really any doubt as to who was in charge. NARRATOR: One person who is
not scared of Romo, however,
00:21:47
was Isidro Alba. ERIC SIDDALL: Alba,
he was an old school Blythe Street gang member.
00:21:53
As Romo was taking
over the gang, he starts giving
orders to Alba. And Alba is resisting
those orders
00:22:00
because Alba doesn't
recognize Romo as being the supreme
leader of Blythe Street.
00:22:08
Romo puts Alba
on disregard, and disregard means that you're not
in good standing with the gang.
00:22:15
[ominous music] NARRATOR: Romo ordered
his gang members to set up a fake drug deal in
a parking lot for Isidro Alba
00:22:27
to attend. He turned up in his car
along with his girlfriend. GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
She was in the car
00:22:36
when Mr. Alba was gunned
down by other members of Blythe Street. [gunshots] ERIC SIDDALL: But then they
tried to kill the girlfriend.
00:22:48
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: They fired
multiple rounds into the car, but his girlfriend
crouched down low
00:22:53
on the floor board
of the passenger seat and was miraculously
not killed. NATE GARTRELL: His girlfriend
gets hit by broken glass
00:23:03
and ends up playing dead. It's kind of a miracle
the girlfriend wasn't hit by gunfire once,
even though she was bleeding.
00:23:13
NARRATOR: Later,
police evidence photos show the bullet-riddled car. Alba's girlfriend
recognized his killers
00:23:21
but said nothing to the police. ERIC SIDDALL:
Alba's girlfriend, because she was a Blythe
Street gang member,
00:23:26
she didn't want to cooperate. NARRATOR: With Alba's
girlfriend refusing to speak to law enforcement
for fear of reprisal,
00:23:35
Romo had successfully
wiped out an opponent. LINA HAJI: Romo's
ego was reinforced.
00:23:42
Because every time
he got more violent, every time he called
more shots, every time
00:23:48
he got more and more people to
do what he wanted them to do, it was self-reinforcing
in the sense
00:23:55
that it was showing
him that he was doing the right
thing because, again, he was getting his needs met.
00:24:02
So, why stop here? NARRATOR: Within
a couple of months, somebody else would earn
Romo's deadly displeasure.
00:24:11
[ominous music] ERIC SIDDALL: Carlos Rios was
a wannabe Blythe Street gang member.
00:24:22
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: Carlos was a
male Hispanic in his early 20s. He had gotten two new
tattoos on his face,
00:24:30
representing
the Blythe Street gang. ERIC SIDDALL: Romo had a rule
that in order for you to get
00:24:36
a tattoo, you had to earn
it, and earning it meant that you had
to commit a violent act.
00:24:42
It also meant that you had
to get the permission of Romo to be able to have this tattoo.
00:24:48
He has a conference call with
his members of Blythe Street. And Romo tells them
that you basically
00:24:54
have to kill Rios
because he got a tattoo that was not sanctioned. NARRATOR: Romo ordered the hit.
00:25:08
Oscar Molina, Romo's right
hand man out on the streets and two other members
of Blythe Street,
00:25:15
picked up Carlos Rios, saying
that some gang duty to be done, marking their territory
by tagging it with graffiti.
00:25:24
NATE GARTRELL: The thing that
makes a lot of this so scary is that a lot of these
gangs, like Blythe street,
00:25:29
they'll treat
the people they're going to kill the same way
they treat their friends.
00:25:32
So you really don't know
if the people that you trust, the people who are
around you, are
00:25:36
going to kill you that night. Carlos Rios, he's
spray painting a wall. NARRATOR: CCTV
on a building nearby
00:25:45
showed what happened next. Rios has taken
a break from spraying gang tags when he's
approached by two of the men
00:25:54
he's out with. Facing them, Rios doesn't
seem fearful of his friends, until both of them pull
out guns and begin firing.
00:26:05
Rios runs off, but the gunmen
chase him down and kill him in a hail of bullets. After reports of gunshots,
seven minutes later,
00:26:18
the first police cars arrive
at the scene to discover Carlos Rios's body. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: I
was the lead detective
00:26:28
on the Carlos Rios
murder in 2017. He had tattoos on his
face that indicated he was
00:26:36
a Blythe Street gang member. When I arrived, there
were a few things that didn't add up to me.
00:26:43
Carlos Rios was
shot approximately 15 times with a 9-millimeter. There were spent casings
next to the body.
00:26:50
The amount of times that
he was shot at close range, and mostly in the back,
was a bit alarming to me.
00:26:56
Usually gang members,
when they're tagging, are with other gang members
who act as lookouts.
00:27:01
And so they're able to warn
the person tagging if a rival comes into the area. And in this case, it
didn't appear that Mr. Rios
00:27:12
had a lookout or had a weapon. So I found that unusual. I began to form the opinion
that he was killed by someone
00:27:19
that was very close to him. NARRATOR: Recovering the CCTV
later confirmed that suspicion.
00:27:28
And several weeks after
Carlos Rios's murder, Detective Gabriel
Bucknell had a break
00:27:34
in the case when
police officers patrolling in Panorama
City picked up the Blythe Street gang
member Neftaly Martinez.
00:27:43
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: He had
a firearm in his possession, a 9-millimeter handgun,
and he was arrested for that.
00:27:49
That particular gun matched the
casings that were at the scene at the Carlos Rios murder.
00:27:56
So I began to look into Mr.
Neftaly Martinez, as well as his brother
Santos, who was also
00:28:02
a Blythe Street gang member. NARRATOR:
As investigators began to dig deeper into the Blythe
Street gang, 180 miles away
00:28:14
in his prison cell, its
leader was looking to tighten his grip on Panorama City.
00:28:20
Romo ordered that any
members of a rival gang, Columbus Street,
should be attacked
00:28:26
on sight if they strayed
into Blythe Street territory. ERIC SIDDALL: Alex Saldanha,
a Columbus Street gang member,
00:28:34
is shot and crashes
into a Wendy's. Like, literally, his entire
car goes right through the wall
00:28:41
into the middle
of a Wendy's restaurant. He's dead. NARRATOR: A month
later, on Romo's orders,
00:28:49
another Columbus Street member
was shot dead at a bus stop. An innocent bystander,
Elvis Sanchez,
00:28:57
was also killed
in the crossfire. LINA HAJI: Romo,
he's escalating, but he's also becoming
a little bit more
00:29:08
disorganized that
you have to wonder, is this just about
him enjoying murder? Not just enjoying murder, but
enjoying the ability to command
00:29:20
someone to commit murder. It's become so easy for him
to have people murdered. It's almost like a video game.
00:29:30
There's a disconnect
from reality because of his lack of empathy,
because of his lack of remorse,
00:29:35
and because of the fact
that it's so easy for him to take away a human life. NARRATOR: While all the recent
killings in Panorama City
00:29:46
were being investigated,
Romo felt untouchable behind the prison walls. But the tide was about
to turn against him when
00:29:54
Detective Bucknell got a big
break in the Carlos Rios murder case. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: I arrested
Mr. Neftaly Martinez and
00:30:02
his brother Santos
for the murder of Mr. Rios. And they were placed in a jail
cell with an informant,
00:30:11
and they gave the entire
account of the murder to the informant. And what Mr. Romo was
doing within the gang
00:30:18
and regulating the rules and
being as ruthless as he was. NARRATOR: The murderous
gang leader pulling
00:30:28
the strings had been revealed. As investigators turned
their focus on Romo, the relationship with his
right hand man, Oscar Molina,
00:30:38
was beginning to strain. ERIC SIDDALL: Eventually,
Romo started losing trust with Molina
because Molina started
00:30:45
becoming more and more
involved with drugs and was becoming
more unreliable. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: He would be
given orders by Romo to carry
00:30:54
out, and he would not. ERIC SIDDALL: He wasn't
picking up the phone. And so Romo would
text him, like,
00:31:00
in a really sarcastic
fashion, like, you know, why aren't you
picking up the phone?
00:31:06
NATE GARTRELL: Also,
Molina was somebody who had a lot of Romo's secrets
that could lead to Romo getting
00:31:12
imprisoned for a long time. Because, again, Romo
still got a release date. ERIC SIDDALL: That
relationship quickly
00:31:19
deteriorated to the point
where Romo eventually orders Molina's death. [ominous music]
00:31:30
NARRATOR: 34-year-old
Oscar Molina was at home when his phone buzzed. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: He
received some text messages
00:31:39
from another Blythe Street
gang member to come outside, that they were going
to go conduct a mission.
00:31:45
NATE GARTRELL: Molina
was at his apartment with a lady named Karen Tobar. And he says, hey,
I'll be right back.
00:31:50
I'm just going to, you
know, step out real quick. And then that's it. [ominous music]
00:31:59
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: As soon
as Mr. Molina stepped out of his apartment, he
was shot multiple times
00:32:04
by another Blythe Street
gang member whom he trusted. LINA HAJI: Molina
is somebody who
00:32:09
carried out orders for Romo. And yet, Romo, in turn, killed
Molina, which just shows
00:32:19
there never was any loyalty. Loyalty within
the gang is a facade. And if his right hand
man can be taken out,
00:32:29
really, no one is safe. NARRATOR: Detective Gabriel
Bucknell was already scrutinizing Romo's dealings
within the Blythe Street gang,
00:32:41
and this latest murder
pointed in one direction. GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
The only person
00:32:47
that could authorize
the killing of the street level leader of the gang would
be the leader of the gang
00:32:55
that's inside the prison. And that was Mr. Ezequiel Romo. And after Molina died,
the investigation
00:33:02
intensified into Romo. NARRATOR: Romo was desperate
to cover his tracks. This put Karen Tobar, who was
at Molina's apartment the night
00:33:15
he was killed, in danger. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: Karen
Tobar was a young female, Hispanic, who was a hang around
and associate of Blythe Street.
00:33:25
Romo believed that she
couldn't be left alive. NATE GARTRELL: For all they
know, Molina could have said,
00:33:32
hey, I'm going to go see
so-and-so and so-and-so, I'll be right back. And then he gets
shot right there.
00:33:39
She could go out and tell,
you know, the police that he named these
two people or whatever.
00:33:45
[stirring music] NARRATOR: 13 days
after Molina's killing, Karen Tobar was picked up
by two members of Blythe Street
00:33:56
she was friendly with. They drove to Sylmar Park
in the San Fernando Valley. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: I
believe she thought
00:34:06
she was just going to hang
out with these guys, drink beers,
and have a good time.
00:34:12
When they got her to the park,
they stabbed her 32 times. She was killed ruthlessly.
00:34:21
And the reason they stabbed
her 32 times, the number 32 stands for the third and second
letters of the alphabet, which
00:34:29
is CB, which is also
representative of Calle Blythe, or Blythe Street. To send a message
to others in the community,
00:34:39
as well as members
of the Blythe Street, that you will not snitch, you
will not talk to the police,
00:34:44
or Mr. Romo will
have you killed. LINA HAJI: Romo kills this
seemingly innocent 23-year-old
00:34:54
girl, or has her killed. I think the gang helped
to facilitate and normalize the killing for Romo.
00:35:01
But because he was
so cold and so callous, I strongly suspect that even
had he not been a gang member,
00:35:09
he would have gone
on to be a serial killer. I mean, he was
a serial killer anyway.
00:35:13
If you're a lone
wolf serial killer-- a Jeffrey Dahmer, a Ted Bundy-- then you're looked at as like
some kind of abnormal freak
00:35:21
because it's not in context. Well, guess what? There are a lot of gang members
who have killed 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
00:35:29
7, even more people,
and they're not necessarily viewed as serial killers. Romo being one of them.
00:35:40
NARRATOR: Karen Tobar's
body was discovered in the park the next day. After so many murders,
and now with the slayings
00:35:48
of Molina and Karen
Tobar, ruthless Romo had finally overplayed his hand. The mood in Blythe
Street was shifting.
00:35:59
NATE GARTRELL: People in his
own gang are getting killed. Innocent bystanders
are getting killed.
00:36:03
Potential witnesses taken
somewhere and murdered. And it's hard to imagine who
would be safe at this point
00:36:10
from this guy. NARRATOR: Two high-up
members of Blythe Street turned against Romo
and cooperated with the police.
00:36:19
ERIC SIDDALL: Cooperators were
extremely important in terms of linking all of these
murders to Romo and to Molina,
00:36:29
and establishing the command
structure of Blythe Street. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: They
overheard phone conversations
00:36:36
from Mr. Romo inside the
prison, speaking to Mr. Molina about ordering the killings
of some of these people,
00:36:44
including Mr. Rios. And they didn't agree with it. NARRATOR: Romo's
phones were immediately
00:36:53
seized by the authorities. ERIC SIDDALL: One of those
cell phones actually had all of his text messages
still preserved on the cell
00:37:01
phone through WhatsApp. That was a bonanza
of information because it literally had
Romo giving Molina orders
00:37:11
after order after order. We also had Molina's
cell phones that provided us additional information.
00:37:19
We didn't just go
after the shooters, we went after the entire
apparatus that allowed
00:37:23
the shootings to happen. Because we had to show that
someone inside a state prison,
00:37:30
not just was ordering
these murders, but had the ability
to order these murders.
00:37:36
Showing that
criminal enterprise made it a complex case. NARRATOR: 42-year-old
Romo was charged with
00:37:47
a litany of serious offenses. It took three more years
to eventually bring him and
00:37:53
other defendants from
the Blythe Street gang to trial in March 2023. ERIC SIDDALL: We accused
him of six murders, six
00:38:01
attempted murders, and six acts
of the state's Rico Conspiracy. That's the statute that allows
us to prosecute people, hold
00:38:09
people accountable for running
a criminal enterprise and benefiting from that
criminal enterprise.
00:38:16
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: Mr. Romo was
a very intelligent individual. His charisma was evident
in the courtroom.
00:38:23
I could see how his
style and the way he led could attract young,
disenfranchised members
00:38:31
of the community
to belong to Blythe Street and do what he said. ERIC SIDDALL: He was very
friendly with the court.
00:38:39
But there was this one moment
where you really truly saw the guy who was the shot
caller of Blythe Street,
00:38:46
and that was when we had to go
get his tattoos photographed. He looked so cold
and dead inside.
00:38:55
If you had disrespected
him at that moment, he was ready to shank you. It was because at that
point, you know,
00:39:02
he wasn't in front
of the judge. He wasn't in front of a jury. He was just with us.
00:39:07
And his true kind
of character kind of showed. NARRATOR: Testifying
witnesses had
00:39:12
to face him in the courtroom. They now included
the girlfriend of murdered Isidro Alba.
00:39:19
She miraculously hadn't been
killed herself in his shooting and had changed her
mind about cooperating.
00:39:26
GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
She just broke down in front of the jury. It was impactful. I think everyone
in the courtroom.
00:39:32
Just that she lived
through that situation, and that the person
responsible for that was
00:39:38
sitting right in front of her. ERIC SIDDALL: She knew the
dangers of doing what she did,
00:39:47
and yet she did it anyways. The same thing, I think, with
the other two cooperators
00:39:51
that we had and seeing
their courage to get up there in the stand. That, to me, was one
of the more memorable
00:39:58
moments of the trial. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: Mr. Romo,
in the beginning of the trial,
00:40:05
was jovial. ERIC SIDDALL:
Arrogant, cocksure. He thought he was, you
know, that he was going
00:40:12
to beat all of these cases. GABRIEL BUCKNELL:
I detested him because I knew he was
responsible for all
00:40:18
these murders. As the trial wore
on throughout the weeks and the evidence was
shown to the jury,
00:40:26
his attitude started to change. He became a little
more reserved, quiet. NARRATOR: On April 25,
2023, the jury found
00:40:35
Romo guilty on all counts. GABRIEL BUCKNELL: He put his
head down, closed his eyes,
00:40:42
didn't say a word. And to be in the same
courtroom with him when he received that guilty
verdict was satisfying.
00:40:54
ERIC SIDDALL: Romo
received a number of life without possibility
of parole sentences.
00:40:59
In other words,
he would never be eligible to face
the parole board, and he would spend the rest
of his natural life in prison.
00:41:06
I think it was
an appropriate sentence for the amount of chaos,
the amount of murder
00:41:10
that he committed while he
was running Blythe Street. NARRATOR: Romo was sent back
to Centinela State Prison.
00:41:19
No longer the leader
of the Blythe Street gang, he had called his last shot. It also seemed that
Romo's number could be
00:41:29
up with a Mexican Mafia, too. NATE GARTRELL: I
think there was this perception that he
was kind of overstepping
00:41:35
his boundaries. And then, also, there
was an LA Times article that said that he had
been known as a señor,
00:41:41
or someone with authority
in the Mexican Mafia. There was this little
implication that maybe he was
00:41:46
made a Mexican Mafia member. ERIC SIDDALL: The Mexican
Mafia is structured differently, in that each
made member of the mafia
00:41:53
has equal power. To become a made member
of the Mexican Mafia is extremely rare, and it's a
very powerful position to have.
00:42:04
NATE GARTRELL: Informants
said that at some point down the line, the Mexican
Mafia decided
00:42:09
that Romo had been
making himself out to be one when he wasn't really. [ominous music]
00:42:18
NARRATOR: At Centinela, just
over a year after his murder convictions, Romo was
in a prison dayroom
00:42:26
when he was suddenly
attacked by three other inmates with shanks. NATE GARTRELL:
When you see three
00:42:32
people jumping on somebody with
knives, that's a hit squad. NARRATOR: Guards spotted
the assault happening.
00:42:38
It took four rounds
of pepper spray to stop the inmates'
attack on Romo. Sustaining multiple
stab wounds,
00:42:48
Romo was taken to an on-site
medical facility while life-saving
measures were performed.
00:42:54
But he was pronounced
dead at 9:52 PM, aged 47. LINA HAJI: How else was
this supposed to end?
00:43:04
The reason there are sayings
like "live by the sword, die by the sword"
exist for a reason.
00:43:10
I don't think this
could have ended in any other way for Romo,
and he probably knew that.
00:43:18
ERIC SIDDALL: Romo
is an extremely dangerous human being. I mean, a lot
of the characteristics
00:43:23
of what he had are
a lot of characteristics of a lot
of businessmen in terms of being ruthless,
cutthroat, and wanting
00:43:32
to destroy the competition. He just did it with
a gun rather than in corporate America.
00:43:41
LINA HAJI: Ezequiel Romo was
just an extremely callous, cold human who was
devoid of any kind
00:43:49
of empathy and remorse. What made him even
more dangerous is that he was
so savvy, charming,
00:43:58
and charismatic
that not only was he able to commit murders
and assaults himself,
00:44:05
he was able to have other
people do it for him. And that makes him a very
different kind of evil.
00:44:13
GABRIEL BUCKNELL: Mr. Romo
truly lived up to his moniker as Wicked. As a homicide detective,
I've been involved
00:44:20
in probably 600 murders. I don't think
I've seen anything that matches what Mr. Romo
has done in this case.
00:44:29
Truly, he was wicked. [theme music]