Crime & Law

Chicago Man Acquitted of Murder-for-Hire Charge in Plot Allegedly Targeting Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino

A federal jury has acquitted a Chicago man accused of placing a bounty on the head of Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino as he spearheaded the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement operations across the city and beyond last fall.

A 12-person jury reached its verdict Thursday afternoon in the case of Juan Espinoza Martinez, a Little Village resident who was charged in a murder-for-hire plot after prosecutors alleged he offered $10,000 for someone to kill Bovino.

Espinoza Martinez did not appear to react as the verdict was read, but he shared hugs with his defense team as jurors exited the courtroom Thursday afternoon. He faced up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

Jurors deliberated for approximately three hours in the rapidly unfolding trial, which featured testimony from just four witnesses in a case where the verdict was announced just a day after opening statements began.

Espinoza Martinez, 37, was arrested on the murder-for-hire charge in October, weeks after the Trump administration launched its “Operation Midway Blitz” enforcement plan — led by Bovino — targeting northern Illinois.

His was the first criminal case stemming from “Midway Blitz” to go to trial in Chicago’s federal court building. 

The verdict marks a blow both for federal prosecutors and the Trump administration, which had touted the allegations as a sign of the dangers facing federal immigration agents conducting expanded enforcement operations across the country.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, 31 people have been charged with non-immigration crimes stemming from “Operation Midway Blitz.” Fourteen have already had their charges dropped while prosecutors have not yet secured any convictions.

When he was charged, prosecutors alleged Espinoza Martinez was a “ranking member” of the Latin Kings street gang, while a Homeland Security spokesperson labeled him a “depraved individual” and a “thug.”

Prosecutors later backed off the gang allegations and U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow barred any testimony regarding Espinoza Martinez’s alleged connections to the Latin Kings from trial.

Espinoza Martinez was accused of sending a Snapchat message to his brother and an acquaintance that included a photo of Bovino along with the message “2k on information when you get him” and “10k if u take him down.”

“Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, the defendant typed those words and sent that picture with the intent to solicit a murder,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan said in his closing arguments Thursday morning. “They are not innocent and harmless words. They are a call to action.”

While prosecutors claimed this represented a “specific incentive encouraging a specific action taken against a specific individual,” Espinoza Martinez’s defense team said he was simply sharing neighborhood gossip.

They argued the government failed to prove there was any intent behind Espinoza Martinez’s words.

“Sending a message, gossip that you heard, it’s not murder-for-hire,” defense attorney Dena Singer said in her own closing remarks. “It’s not a federal crime.”

Defense attorneys painted the 37-year-old carpenter as a family man who steered clear of gangs and crime. While he was upset about the escalated immigration operations occurring in his Little Village neighborhood, his attorneys claimed Espinoza Martinez took no action to try and target or injure anyone involved.

Prosecutors, however, claimed he had become “fixated and obsessed” with Bovino, whom they described as “the face of the threat” to Espinoza Martinez’s community.

“He wants to fight back about what is happening in his neighborhood,” Yonan said. “But he is doing more than just fighting back, he is taking words that have meaning and words that are a call for action. He crossed the line.”

Testimony started and concluded Wednesday with only four witnesses called in total between the prosecution and defense. Neither Bovino — who has not been present in court at any point throughout the trial — nor Espinoza Martinez testified.

But jurors did hear from Espinoza Martinez through portions of his interview with Homeland Security investigators following his arrest last October. In those clips, he repeatedly denied threatening anyone, though he said he “understood” how the message could come off as a threat.

“It’s just a conversation,” he told the agents at the time, “not threatening anybody.”

Espinoza Martinez denied that his message was meant to be a murder solicitation more than 30 times throughout that interview, Singer said Thursday.

Jurors also heard from Adrian Jimenez, an acquaintance of Espinoza Martinez who had been secretly cooperating with various law enforcement agencies since the mid-1990s. Jimenez was one of two people Espinoza Martinez sent the alleged “10k” solicitation to, and testified he immediately sent a copy of that message to a Homeland Security agent he was familiar with.

Jimenez testified that he understood that message to mean that Espinoza Martinez was offering $2,000 “when they grab (Bovino)” and $10,000 “if you kill him.”

But the other man who received that message from Espinoza Martinez — his younger brother, Oscar Espinoza — testified he’d seen that same message shared elsewhere previously on Facebook and believed his brother had simply shared it with him as a joke to show him what other people were saying online.

“The government has failed to prove their case,” Singer said. “You know it. You have to be sure that that was Juan’s intent and you (aren’t) because it wasn’t.”

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