Federal judge orders Trump administration not to deport Chicago man cleared of Bovino murder plot

A federal judge in Indiana has ordered the Trump administration not to deport the Chicago man acquitted last month of offering $10,000 for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.

U.S. District Judge James Hanlon said it’s likely that Juan Espinoza Martinez is entitled to a bond hearing that could lead to his release. Espinoza Martinez has been in federal custody since his arrest on murder-for-hire charges in early October, records show.

It took a federal jury roughly three hours on Jan. 22 to acquit Espinoza Martinez after a brief trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. However, he was quickly taken into custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Homeland Security officials have accused Espinoza Martinez of being in the country illegally.

Espinoza Martinez has since been held in the Clay County Justice Center in Brazil, Indiana, records show. Attorneys filed a petition Monday in the Southern District of Indiana challenging his detention. 

Hanlon wrote that the “weight” of legal authority supports Espinoza Martinez’s position that he “is at minimum entitled to a bond hearing and not subject to mandatory detention.”

The judge ordered the Trump administration not to move Espinoza Martinez “outside the jurisdiction of the United States,” or even outside the 7th U.S. Circuit — made up of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Hanlon told the feds to respond to Espinoza Martinez’s petition by Friday afternoon. He gave Espinoza Martinez’s attorneys until Monday to reply. A ruling is unlikely in the meantime.

Hanlon was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2018.

Federal authorities originally accused Espinoza Martinez of being a “high-ranking member of the Latin Kings,” but prosecutors did not set out to prove it at trial. Without that claim, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow barred gang-related evidence from Espinoza Martinez’s trial.

Homeland Security continues to refer to Espinoza Martinez on its website as a “Latin Kings gang member.” Similarly, it continues to refer to Marimar Martinez, the woman shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago, as a “domestic terrorist” even though criminal charges against her were dropped by Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ office.

Martinez spoke Tuesday to Democratic members of Congress, telling them in part that she wants the Trump administration to admit she is not a “domestic terrorist.” She is a teacher’s assistant at a Montessori school and was born in Chicago.

The case against Espinoza Martinez revolved around a message he sent someone via Snapchat. It followed a picture of Bovino and read, “2k on info cuando lo agarren,” “10k if u take him down,” and “LK … on him.”

The man who received the message, Adrian Jimenez, testified that he understood it to mean “$2,000 when they grab him … $10,000 if you kill him … Latin Kings are on him.” Jimenez said he immediately turned it over to authorities.

Bovino served as the face of the immigration campaign launched by the Trump administration in Chicago last year, Operation Midway Blitz.

Prosecutors also pointed to separate messages Espinoza Martinez sent to his brother, including “10k for his head” below a picture of Bovino, along with “dead or alive” and “s--t serious.”

But defense attorneys Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer pointed out that no money exchanged hands. No weapons were purchased. And social media “is riddled with things that aren’t true,” Singer said.

“You should demand that there’s other evidence before you can convict somebody for this,” she told the jury.