Eight days after Michael Torres, a member of the Mexican mafia known as “Mosca,” was killed in prison in 2023, a woman called his wife was shot.
The circumstances surrounding Stephanie Rodriguez’s death, filmed in the area of her late mother at Torres’ San Fernando House, raised questions about whether she was targeted in a wider campaign against her partner.
Law enforcement took into account Torres, 59, a member of the San Fernando Valley’s most powerful Mexican mafia and a key figure behind the Los Angeles County Jail Racket that occurred on July 6, 2023 at the time of his death.
Mexican Mafia member Michael Torres was stabbed to death in July 2023 at a state prison in Sacramento.
(California Department of Corrections)
The incident took an even more strange turn when Torres’ Nie was accused of killing 38-year-old Rodriguez.
Several responses emerged at a recent preliminary hearing for 35-year-old Evelyn Torres. Based on testimony at Thursday’s hearing, Rodriguez appears to have not been a victim of a mob hit, but he may have been involved in a personal conflict that was caught up in violence.
det. Carrie Bell of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department testified that Evelyn Torres was distraught with her uncle’s death when she began an argument with Rodriguez early on July 14, 2023.
The woman was at Michael Torres’ late mother’s house on Keewen Street. Search warrant records show that the house served more than a mother’s shelter.
After Michael Torres’ mother passed away in 2020, both Rodriguez and Evelyn Torres moved. However, in their battle on the night of her death, Rodriguez began packing her belongings, testified. The witness said that since his name had not been revealed in court, Rodriguez said Evelyn Torres would also need to leave.
Evelyn Torres was angry, an eyewitness said. “I remember her saying something about the ‘family home.’ ”
Rodriguez was still alive when he left around 1am.
According to the search warrant affidavit, there was a nameless person called police at 3:16am. The officers spotted Rodriguez in the living room. Bell testified. Grasping a dot in her face meant she was shot at close range, detectives said.
The coroner’s investigator looked at a tattoo, or a fly, behind his left ear. Her partner’s nickname “Mosca” means fly in Spanish.
Reviewing the surveillance footage of the house, Bell testified that he recorded the sound of a gunshot at 1:33am.
The camera then showed a woman who looked like Evelyn Torres leaving the house, detectives said.
It was not clear why the police were not warned until 90 minutes later.
Bell testified that Bell, who was arrested at noon that same day, had waived Miranda’s rights and admitted to killing Rodriguez. She claimed that Rodriguez fired her only after punching her in the face, detectives said.
“She was mad at her uncle’s death,” recalls Bell.
Why is Michael Torres, who was brought to life in 133 by two inmates at the California State Prison in Sacramento by a group of prisoners, for murder, conspiracy, weapons crimes and attempts to tamper with witnesses, remains unknown.
According to law enforcement sources, Torres, who was educated in the fifth grade, developed a scheme that extracts tens of thousands of dollars a month from the population of the Los Angeles County Jail.
Using smuggling cell phones from prison cell phones, Torres oversaw the black market for an extortion committee called “Kitty.” He also arranged for drugs to be smuggled into county lockups, according to the evidence presented in the case filed against his subordinates.
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