{"id":414791,"date":"2026-07-28T04:33:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T04:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/414791\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T04:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T04:33:25","slug":"reputed-mexican-mafia-figure-snuffy-convicted-of-club-owner-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/414791\/","title":{"rendered":"Reputed Mexican Mafia figure ‘Snuffy’ convicted of club owner killing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One night nearly 16 years ago, two men broke into the Downey home of Hermilio Franco. <\/p>\n

Franco, who owned a popular nightclub called El Farallon and acted in low-budget Mexican films, awoke when one of the intruders pressed a taser to his neck. He drew a chrome-plated .45 from under his pillow and opened fire. <\/p>\n

One of the prowlers was shot in the neck and paralyzed instantly. The other, hit in the stomach, staggered out of the house. He had vanished by the time the police arrived, his identity a mystery for the next 15 years. <\/p>\n

On Monday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found that Manuel \u201cSnuffy\u201d Quintero was the intruder who got away those early morning hours of Nov. 3, 2010. Quintero, an alleged member of the Mexican Mafia, was found guilty of murdering Franco and now faces life in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 16. <\/p>\n

\"Hermilio <\/p>\n

Hermilio Franco was killed Nov. 3, 2010. <\/p>\n

(Los Angeles County Superior Court)<\/p>\n

Quintero\u2019s lawyer, Cameron Talley, said he respected the verdict even if he was disappointed by it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still my belief Manny Quintero\u2019s an innocent man,\u201d Talley said.<\/p>\n

Quintero, 50, also faces pending charges in an unrelated case that accuse him of conspiring to murder a rapper who was attacked in the Los Angeles County jail. Talley denied that Quintero is affiliated with the Mexican Mafia, a group of about 140 men who control most Latino gangs in Southern California. <\/p>\n

Central to the prosecution\u2019s case in the Franco murder was the account of Quintero\u2019s paralyzed accomplice, Larry Trujillo. In exchange for a reduced sentence, Trujillo told investigators from the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office and the Downey Police Department in 2014 that he broke into Franco\u2019s home with Quintero. <\/p>\n

For reasons that have not been explained, authorities did not charge Quintero with Franco\u2019s murder until 2025. <\/p>\n

Called to testify this month, Trujillo\u2019s story changed dramatically. He named Quintero as his accomplice only after a browbeating from the authorities, who wanted to frame Quintero for a crime he didn\u2019t commit, Trujillo told the jury. <\/p>\n

Talley said he found Trujillo\u2019s testimony to be \u201ccompelling and truthful,\u201d unlike his statement from 2014 when he was hoping to get a reduced sentence. <\/p>\n

\"Larry <\/p>\n

Larry Trujillo, photographed after his arrest in 2010, was paralyzed in an attempt to rob Hermilio Franco.<\/p>\n

(Los Angeles County Superior Court)<\/p>\n

After Trujillo finished testifying, prosecutors played a video of his earlier sworn statement. Clad in a green jumpsuit and lying on a hospital bed, Trujillo said into the camera, \u201cIn the nights leading up to November 3, we had a number of various heists or home invasions, I guess you could say, we were planning to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quintero came up with the idea of robbing Franco, Trujillo said. According to Trujillo, Quintero claimed Franco had ripped him off in a drug deal for $80,000. <\/p>\n

Franco\u2019s relatives deny he was involved in organized crime, but Trujillo said the nightclub owner was known as a \u201cheavyweight in the drug world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis club caters to the biggest narcos in the business, and he brokers all their deals,\u201d Trujillo said. Franco\u2019s club, El Farallon, hosted Chalino Sanchez and other singers of narcorridos, ballads that chronicle the Mexican drug trade. <\/p>\n

Trujillo said he and Quintero went to a Walmart where they bought an airsoft gun with a laser sight that Trujillo removed and taped onto his Smith and Wesson. \u201cLaser beams are very intimidating,\u201d he said. He planned to use the laser to direct their hostages inside the darkened house, he explained. <\/p>\n

\"Police <\/p>\n

Police found stacks of cash in Hermilio Franco\u2019s safe after he was killed. <\/p>\n

(Los Angeles County Superior Court)<\/p>\n

Prosecutors displayed footage from a Walmart in Baldwin Park that showed Quintero and Trujillo purchase an airsoft gun, cellphone, screwdriver set and pack of Dentyne gum the day before Franco was killed. They also argued that a scar on Quintero\u2019s stomach was probably from the bullet fired by Franco. <\/p>\n

According to Trujillo, the plan was to restrain Franco and his family and force him to open a safe that Quintero said contained \u201cserious cash.\u201d <\/p>\n

Carrying zip ties and handguns, Trujillo said, he and Quintero drove to the street behind the Franco home, where they scaled a fence and were confronted by the family\u2019s dog, a chihuahua. Trujillo placated the dog with peanut butter and they clambered over a wall into the Franco backyard, he said. Trujillo scaled the wall easily, but the shorter Quintero was \u201cjust kicking and kicking and kicking\u201d before he made it over, Trujillo said. <\/p>\n

Quintero made a phone call before they slipped through an unlocked back door. \u201cThat was something I think he had prearranged,\u201d Trujillo said.<\/p>\n

Inside the house, Trujillo peered into a room and saw an unmade, empty bed, \u201cas if someone slipped out.\u201d He thought the person had heard Quintero scrambling over the wall and worried they were awake, he said. Quintero had warned him that Franco kept a pair of .45s in the house. <\/p>\n

Quintero beckoned to the master bedroom, Trujillo said. From the moonlight, he could see a shirtless Franco sleeping on his stomach beside his wife. As he approached, Trujillo accidentally kicked over a glass of water on the marble floor, but Franco and his wife didn\u2019t stir. <\/p>\n

Trujillo said he grabbed Franco\u2019s wife by the hair as Quintero pressed a taser to Franco\u2019s neck. <\/p>\n

\u201cThings turned into a complete disaster after he used the taser,\u201d Trujillo said.<\/p>\n

According to Trujillo, the device was not an actual taser but a \u201cbuzzer thing from a novelty shop.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody in their right mind knows that thing doesn\u2019t have enough power to do anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Screaming, Franco grabbed the .45 from under his pillow and cocked it. Trujillo said he backpedaled, aimed his Smith and Wesson at Franco and fired a single round through Franco\u2019s chest. Franco, mortally wounded, shot back. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was blown back against the wall,\u201d Trujillo said. <\/p>\n

Franco fired five shots at Quintero, who jumped over Trujillo. As he fled, Franco\u2019s daughter opened her bedroom door and caught a glimpse of a man in black clothing running out a back door. She testified she did not see the man\u2019s face. <\/p>\n

Trujillo said Quintero wore a ski mask and told him to do the talking because he did not want to be recognized. According to Trujillo, Quintero said he\u2019d once dated Franco\u2019s daughter. <\/p>\n

Called to testify, Franco\u2019s daughter Adriana denied she was ever in a relationship with Quintero, even after Quintero\u2019s lawyer confronted her with photographs of the two arm in arm. <\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t that a sweetheart picture?\u201d Talley asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a friend picture,\u201d she replied. \u201cFriends take pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adriana said she met Quintero when they were teenagers. Quintero lived next to her cousin, and they became \u201cpen pals\u201d after he was sent to juvenile hall, she testified. <\/p>\n

Adriana testified she had no contact with Quintero after he was arrested on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine in 2001. Asked by a prosecutor if she was embarrassed by her past relationship, she replied, \u201cHe was a friend. And I regret being a friend to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One night nearly 16 years ago, two men broke into the Downey home of Hermilio Franco. Franco, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[165932,165931,9172,48,52,51,165929,47,50,49,1555,23760,165935,7214,165930,165933,165934,136489,4610,1290,4609],"class_list":["post-414791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-cameron-talley","tag-franco","tag-house","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-larry-trujillo","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-man","tag-neck","tag-paralyzed-accomplice","tag-prosecutor","tag-quintero","tag-reputed-mexican-mafia-figure","tag-stomach","tag-taser","tag-thing","tag-wall","tag-wife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}