Posted on 04/12/2005 4:32:31 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
As strippers gyrated around them at the Penthouse Club, leaders and soldiers of the Texas Mexican Mafia discussed the business at hand.
The brother of the group's former vice president was attempting a coup d 'etat, and that sibling, Tony Rodriguez, needed to be silenced before he convinced other mafia members to split off and join him in his quest to kill those who replaced his brother and his leadership council.
The camello, or job, went to William "Willow" Covarrubias, who testified Monday he looked for Rodriguez to kill him but could not find him.
Though Covarrubias said he never got to Rodriguez, someone apparently did.
In early November, Rodriguez's body was found in the trunk of an Oldsmobile abandoned at an H-E-B at Southwest Military Drive and Pleasanton Road. His body still had the bulletproof vest he was wearing before relatives last saw him on Halloween, police have said.
Though jurors did not hear details about how Rodriguez was killed, Covarrubias and another gang turncoat, Michael "Changuito" Rios, began the second week of trial of four alleged Mexican Mafia members by implicating them in a conspiracy that used violence to further the group's control of the drug trade in San Antonio.
On the stand, Covarrubias brought to light the killing of former gang vice president Carlos "Guero" Rodriguez, who was gunned down in a daring noontime shooting in June 2003 at a busy shopping center on the far West Side.
Covarrubias said that, in March 2004, he, Rios and alleged fellow gang members Alfredo "Guero" Martinez Jr., Daniel "Gumby" Leza and Jimmy "Panson" Zavala had a junta, or meeting, at the Penthouse Club (now Centerfolds), a topless bar on the Northeast Side, to discuss Tony Rodriguez.
"There was word going around with Tony being upset that his brother was killed," Covarrubias testified. "He was trying to get other carnales (Mexican Mafia members) behind him to kill the remaining (ranking) members."
"I was given an assignment — to kill Tony, but I never carried it out."
His testimony clashed with that given by Rios, a gang lieutenant. Rios testified the meeting was intended to discuss letters from prison that apparently created confusion about gang leadership at the federal level.
"If (Covarrubias) testified that the reason for the meeting at the Penthouse Club was to put a hit on somebody, he would be lying?" Steven J. Pickell, a lawyer for Zavala, one of the four on trial, asked Rios.
"Yes sir," Rios replied.
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gcontreras@express-news.net
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Who was protecting the interests of El Presidente Vicente Fox and his wife?
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That would be Jorge "Open Borders" Arbusto.
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