Rene Enriquez was a leader of the Mexican Mafia, the prison-based gang whose influence reached dozens of Los Angeles street gangs, and he entered California state custody in 1993 for two murders committed in Los Angeles in December 1989. While on parole after a robbery sentence, he was involved in the deaths of Cynthia Figueroa Gavaldon on December 23, 1989, and of David Gallegos a week later. He was convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court of two counts of second-degree murder, one count of assault and a drug conspiracy count, and received life terms with the possibility of parole.
His later history is as widely known as his crimes. In 2002 he left the gang and began to give information to the authorities, and he went on to testify for prosecutors, lecture to police officers and write a memoir. The Board of Parole Hearings found him suitable for release repeatedly from 2015 onward, and governors of both parties overruled it each time until 2022. A Los Angeles judge held in 2021 that the evidence did not support the Governor's finding of current dangerousness, and in July 2022 the full parole board affirmed a further grant.
Enriquez was born in about 1962. By his own account his troubles began at about the age of 11, with a burglary and a vehicle theft, and as a juvenile he took part in a robbery and a kidnapping. He joined a street gang in Artesia at about 12.
His adult record included burglary, robbery and other serious offenses, and he repeatedly violated probation. A 2015 gubernatorial decision cited more than 20 robbery counts in his history. He was serving a robbery sentence in the state prison system in 1985, when he was about 22, and joined the Mexican Mafia there. Over the following years he rose to a leadership position. He described himself as a member for about 17 or 18 years, and has said that he ran a large crew. He is described as having extorted street drug dealers on the gang's behalf and helped extend its reach into dozens of Los Angeles street gangs.
Enriquez was on parole in December 1989. Cynthia Figueroa Gavaldon, 27, of Boyle Heights, died on December 23, 1989. Enriquez instructed another member of the gang to carry out the killing. Her relatives and friends argued at the 2022 parole proceedings that he remained dangerous, and relatives of victims testified against release in 2016.
David Gallegos died on December 30, 1989, a week later. The Governor's decisions describe both killings as part of Enriquez's leadership of the gang. The conviction for his death, as for the first, is for murder in the second degree.
Enriquez was arrested in 1990 on robbery counts while on parole. On July 16, 1991, while Enriquez was in county custody awaiting trial, another gang member was assaulted, and Enriquez was later convicted of assault over it. The man survived.
The judgment hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court took place on March 12, 1993. The abstract of judgment records two convictions for second-degree murder and one for assault, and it refers to a plea agreement on one count. Enriquez was received into state custody on March 25, 1993.
He received concurrent indeterminate life terms with the possibility of parole, together with a determinate term on a drug conspiracy count. His minimum eligible parole date was March 11, 2004.
Enriquez has said he grew disillusioned with the Mexican Mafia as its members settled disputes by threatening the families of rivals. He has said he left after members began killing children and innocent relatives. His debriefing began on March 22, 2002, when he was 39. He told investigators how the gang was organized, how it passed messages through visiting rooms and how it moved money, and he recorded video interviews that were shown to state officials. He called the move a break with 17 years in the gang.
He testified for prosecutors, and about three years after he started working with the government he gave evidence at a federal trial in San Diego in which seven defendants were convicted and received life terms. His attorneys later cited more than 80 letters of support, written between 2002 and 2018 by the FBI, local law enforcement, prosecutors and a deputy state attorney general. The authorities took unusual steps to protect him: he was once booked in a jail under a false name on an invented charge of possessing a swordfish without a license, and he was paid a stipend of $200 a week for lectures to California law enforcement and an online course on prison gangs. In January 2015 the Los Angeles Police Department cleared a downtown building so that he could speak to police chiefs and business leaders, an event that drew criticism of the department and a review of its role.
He has said that he would enter a federal witness protection program on release. Prison gang investigators recommended in March 2020 that his validation as an inactive Mexican Mafia dropout be ended. He has reported gang-related threats since he left and was transferred several times for his safety.
California law gives the Board of Parole Hearings the first decision on whether a prisoner serving an indeterminate life term is suitable for release, and the Governor may review a grant. Between 2015 and 2020 Enriquez was found suitable five times, and five times the Governor reversed.
In January 2015 a parole panel decided that he should be released over the objection of a Los Angeles deputy district attorney, who told the panel that Enriquez might be manipulating it. Eleven law enforcement agencies had written letters, though only one specifically supported release. Governor Jerry Brown reversed the grant on February 20, 2015, in a three-page decision. He wrote that Enriquez presented "a rather shallow understanding of how he came to perpetuate so many violent crimes," and that as a high-profile dropout he would pose a serious security risk to himself, his family, his parole agents and the community.
A second grant followed in February 2016, when more than 60 law enforcement letters supported him. Three relatives of victims testified against release by video link, giving only first names. Brown reversed again in June 2016, writing that Enriquez remained an active target for the Mexican Mafia and that no evidence showed he had been accepted into a witness protection program. A third grant in 2017 met the same fate on November 2, 2017. Brown called him a model prisoner and praised his efforts, but wrote that he was responsible for "an immeasurable amount of death and destruction," that he had not shown an adequate understanding of why he embraced violence and gang leadership, and that no plan existed to manage the risk to his family, parole agents and the community.
The Board found him suitable again on December 14, 2018. Governor Gavin Newsom reversed that grant by a letter dated April 12, 2019. The fifth grant came on May 6, 2020. A comprehensive risk assessment in 2020 rated his risk of violence as low, and the filings report no violent behavior since 1997 and no serious rule violations since 2004. On September 18, 2020, Newsom reversed it, citing an "extensive history of violent and manipulative behavior" and his own reading of the risk assessment, and concluded that Enriquez "must show additional progress before he can be released without undue risk to public safety."
The Prison Law Office filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Los Angeles County Superior Court on April 22, 2021. It argued that each reason in the Governor's letter lacked evidence of current dangerousness. On May 14, 2021, the court found that the petition made a prima facie case and ordered the state to show cause why relief should not be granted. The Attorney General filed a return on July 28, 2021, and the petitioner replied in August.
Judge William C. Ryan granted the petition on August 31, 2021. The court found that no evidence supported the Governor's conclusion that Enriquez posed an unreasonable risk to public safety, that the Governor had taken statements from the psychologist's report out of context, and that the positive factors, including self-help programs and assistance to law enforcement, had not been weighed properly. It reinstated the Board's 2020 grant. The Court of Appeal temporarily stayed the order, and the Attorney General filed a notice of appeal on October 26, 2021. The opening brief was filed on March 1, 2022 and the reply on March 28.
While the appeal was pending, a new hearing produced another finding of suitability on January 20, 2022. On June 17, 2022, the Governor referred that grant to the full Board, citing in part unique security threats and Enriquez's cooperation. On July 18, 2022, the full Board voted to affirm it, by a majority of the commissioners present. The Attorney General filed a notice abandoning the appeal on July 19, 2022, as moot, stating that Enriquez would be released from custody. At the time he was 60.
Prisoners serving indeterminate life terms in California are released only when the Board of Parole Hearings finds them suitable, and the Governor may review and reverse a grant. A court reviewing a reversal asks whether some evidence supports a finding of current dangerousness, and a ruling granting relief can be appealed by the state under Penal Code section 1507. In this case the question of dangerousness was decided in the Superior Court in 2021, and the later grant made the appeal moot. The reversals between 2015 and 2020 cited the seriousness of the offenses, the years of gang leadership, the depth of his insight, and the security risk a gang dropout would face on release.
Whether Enriquez had truly changed was the question behind every hearing from 2015 on. Governors Brown and Newsom, Los Angeles prosecutors and relatives of the victims doubted his insight into his own violence and the safety of releasing a high-profile dropout. The Board of Parole Hearings, a risk assessment that rated him low, scores of letters from law enforcement and, in 2021, a Superior Court judge took the other view. The date of his release from custody has not been announced.
About 1962: Born.
About 1974: Joins a street gang at about age 12.
1985: Joins the Mexican Mafia while serving a robbery sentence.
December 23, 1989: Cynthia Figueroa Gavaldon dies in Boyle Heights.
December 30, 1989: David Gallegos dies.
1990: Arrested on robbery counts while on parole.
July 16, 1991: Assault on another gang member while Enriquez is in county custody; the man survives.
March 12, 1993: Judgment hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
March 25, 1993: Received into state custody.
March 22, 2002: Begins debriefing, aged 39.
March 11, 2004: Minimum eligible parole date.
January 2015: A parole panel decides in favor of release.
February 20, 2015: Governor Brown reverses the grant.
February 2016: Second grant; reversed in June 2016.
November 2, 2017: Governor Brown reverses a third grant.
December 14, 2018: Fourth grant; reversed by Governor Newsom by letter dated April 12, 2019.
May 6, 2020: Fifth grant; reversed September 18, 2020.
April 22, 2021: Habeas corpus petition filed.
August 31, 2021: Superior Court grants the petition.
October 26, 2021: State appeals.
January 20, 2022: Board finds him suitable.
June 17, 2022: Governor refers the grant to the full Board.
July 18, 2022: Full Board affirms the grant.
July 19, 2022: Appeal abandoned as moot.