A Chicago street gang enforcer — with his family, including five children asleep in the arms of relatives, packed into three rows behind him — was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday for joining a criminal conspiracy that pressed drugs and violence in the city’s troubled neighborhoods.
While he was never charged with pulling a trigger, Jose Guzman, 34, was held accountable for being a leader in the Latin Kings, a gang that prosecutors said sent countless foot soldiers into the streets to deal drugs and shoot rivals — at times fatally.
“The family that he chose … was the Latin Kings,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tinos Diamantatos, who acknowledged the strong showing of family in the courtroom. “He chose to stand with them.”
The sentence by U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle brings one of the stiffest sentences in the government’s sweeping takedown of the Latin Kings gang, which has led to charges against more than 40 defendants during the past eight years. The government used a racketeering charge to hold high-level Latin Kings members accountable for shootings, beatings and mayhem routinely engaged in by lower-level members.
Guzman’s attorney, Nishay Sanan, argued for a 20-year sentence, saying that his client’s should not face more time for shootings he did not commit or be punished for going to trial.
In defense filings, Guzman was also described as a loving father of six.
But Norgle agreed with the government that the gang’s written constitution proved that Guzman was a leader of a hierarchical organization in which lower-level members did the violent bidding of those at the top — and he should be held accountable for it.
“They are a law unto themselves,” Norgle said. “…I’ve used the word ‘barbarian’ before.”
At trial, prosecutors entered into evidence a written Latin Kings constitution and rule book that federal agents had seized. The testimony showed that members had to defend their turf with guns and be ready to fire at rivals.
Diamantatos also pointed Wednesday to a government wiretap in which Guzman ordered a retaliation shooting while he watched a Bears game with other gang leaders.
“There’s innocent people in the streets who can get hit and who do get hit, as we hear about in the news every day,” he said.
