A man accused of a murder-for-hire plot targeting a top US border patrol leader was found not guilty on Thursday in Chicago, the latest high-profile prosecution by the Department of Justice to fall apart in court.<\/p>\n
The government alleged that Juan Espinoza Martinez, 37, had offered<\/a> a $10,000 bounty over Snapchat in October for the killing of Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations in cities across the country. Defense lawyers argued Espinoza Martinez was sharing an innocuous social media message that did not constitute a threat.<\/p>\n The jury\u2019s acquittal, after less than four hours of deliberation, is an embarrassing outcome for federal prosecutors in the first criminal trial stemming from the Trump administration\u2019s major crackdown<\/a> in the Chicago-area that started last year.<\/p>\n The verdict comes after dozens<\/a> of criminal cases tied to immigration enforcement have crumbled across the country. In September, the first Los Angeles protester to go to trial in connection with the southern California demonstrations against immigration raids was also acquitted<\/a> in a case that featured direct testimony from Bovino.<\/p>\n Espinoza Martinez was facing 10 years in prison for the murder-for-hire charge. When he was arrested last year, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called him a \u201cdepraved\u201d gang member and \u201cthug\u201d, and Bovino has cited the case as an example of the increasing dangers facing federal agents.<\/p>\n Spokespeople for DHS did not immediately respond to inquiries.<\/p>\n The government\u2019s case focused on the Snapchat messages Espinoza Martinez sent to his younger brother and a friend who turned out to be a government informant. One read in part \u201c10k if u take him down\u201d, along with a picture of Bovino.<\/p>\n \u201cThose words do not indicate that this was a joke,\u201d Jason Yonan, the second-highest-ranking federal prosecutor in the Chicago region, told jurors. \u201cThose words have meaning. They are not innocent and harmless words.\u201d<\/p>\n Defense lawyers said the government failed to produce any evidence<\/a> Espinoza Martinez intended to carry out or pay for the killing of Bovino, arguing he had sent the messages as \u201cneighborhood gossip\u201d after coming home from work and unwinding with beers. He didn\u2019t follow up on the messages and had only a few dollars in his bank account.<\/p>\n \u201cSending a message about gossip that you heard in the neighborhood, it\u2019s not murder for hire,\u201d his defense attorney Dena Singer told jurors. \u201cIt\u2019s not a federal crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors accused Espinoza Martinez of being \u201cfixated and obsessed\u201d with Bovino and cited other messages where he criticized the crackdown. Defense lawyers countered that Espinoza Martinez was a carpenter and family man who had been upset with the immigration crackdown in his neighborhood<\/a>, but was not tied to gangs.<\/p>\n Neither Espinoza Martinez nor Bovino testified during the three-day trial. The defendant\u2019s brother, Oscar, testified that he took the Snapchat messages as a joke and that they were something he\u2019d already seen on Facebook.<\/p>\n Attorneys played clips of Espinoza Martinez\u2019s interview with law enforcement where he said he was confused about the charges and had sent the messages without much thought while scrolling social media.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t threaten anyone,\u201d he told investigators. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that I was telling them to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Born in Mexico, he\u2019s lived in Chicago for years but doesn\u2019t have citizenship.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors initially referred to Espinoza Martinez as a \u201cranking member\u201d of the Latin Kings, but their lack of evidence led the judge to bar testimony on the Chicago street gang at trial.<\/p>\n Singer pointed out holes in the government\u2019s case, including in the testimony of their first witness, Adrian Jimenez.<\/p>\n The 44-year-old owns a construction company and had been in touch with Espinoza Martinez over Snapchat about work. Unknown to Espinoza Martinez, he had also worked as a paid government informant over the years and shared the Snapchats with a federal investigator.<\/p>\n Jimenez, who has back problems, walked slowly with a limp to the witness chair and needed help getting up.<\/p>\n \u201cWould you solicit for hire an individual that was in that much pain and could barely walk?\u201d Singer said to jurors. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Several federal lawsuits in Chicago have fueled skepticism about DHS\u2019s narratives. Of the roughly 30 criminal cases stemming from Operation Midway Blitz, charges have been dismissed or dropped in about half. In a notable lawsuit that forced Bovino to sit for depositions, a federal judge found he lied under oath including about alleged gang threats.<\/p>\n