By Matthew Ormseth
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Fernando Arroyos and his girlfriend were looking at homes in Florence-Firestone when they crossed paths with a group of men.
Ernesto Cisneros, Jesse Contreras and Luis De La Rosa Rios were looking for someone to rob. They spotted the chain around the neck of Arroyos, an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer.
Rios pulled his truck to a stop. He and Cisneros got out with guns. As they relieved the couple of their jewelry and money, a struggle broke out. Cisneros and Rios started shooting. The 27-year-old officer, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley before returning to join his home city’s police force, died of a single gunshot wound.
Cisneros, Rios and Contreras were sentenced Friday to long terms in federal prison — 50 years for Cisneros, 50 for Rios and 35 for Contreras — after pleading guilty last year to racketeering. In their pleas, they admitted killing Arroyos as part of a pattern of racketeering activity perpetrated by their gang, Florencia 13.
A fourth defendant, Hayley Grisham, pleaded guilty to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering but has yet to be sentenced.
Angela Mendoza, Arroyos’ girlfriend, said in court that witnessing his death was “the worst day of my life.” Describing Arroyos as quiet and humble but talkative and funny once you got to know him, she criticized the defendants as “degenerates who took my honey away from us.”
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Before sentencing the three, U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson called Arroyos “a young man who had the potential to enhance the quality of life for all of us.” The punishment for killing him, Anderson said, was intended to show that “if you choose to endanger our community by murdering, robbing and trafficking in drugs, there is a steep price to pay.”
Rios declined to address the judge. Contreras apologized to Arroyos’ family and said, “It was never our intention for the officer to die.”
Cisneros, whose lawyer described him as intellectually disabled, said, “I just want to say I’m sorry to the victim’s family, and I’m sorry to my family for putting them through so much pain, that’s it.”
The courtroom was packed with law enforcement officers and top officials, including LAPD Chief Dominic Choi, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna and his predecessor, Alex Villanueva.
Founded in the 1950s, Florencia 13 has grown into one of the largest and most notorious gangs in Los Angeles, with more than two dozen cliques, or subsets, across South Los Angeles, Huntington Park, South Gate and Maywood.
Florencia 13, which law enforcement officials have said has close ties to the Mexican Mafia, has been targeted in a series of federal racketeering indictments alleging the gang trafficked drugs, killed rivals and informants, and extorted operators of gambling parlors and dispensaries in the gang’s territory.
In their pleas, Contreras and Rios admitted Arroyos was the second person they robbed in the early morning hours of Jan. 10, 2022.
Earlier, they’d confronted two musicians leaving the El Norteno bar on Compton Avenue, demanding money while pointing guns at their heads, according to their plea agreements. They admitted making off with about $2,000.
Contreras and Rios then picked up Cisneros and Rios’ girlfriend, Grisham. Driving in Rios’ truck, they saw Arroyos and his girlfriend on 87th Street.
“He has a nice chain,” Grisham recalled Rios saying. “Let’s get it.”
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