Contra Costa Norteños have jail security figured out; testimony on jail stabbing paints picture of coordinated assault

Police testimony on a recent jail stabbing shows Norteño gang members have lookouts, and a system of making and disposing of stabbing instruments.

MARTINEZ — On May 4, several alleged Norteño gang members inside the Contra Costa County jail jumped on a fellow inmate, one using a homemade knife to slash at a gang tattoo on his neck, while others punched and kicked him as he cowered on the floor.

The victim survived, but by dumb luck; police say the weapon came close to slashing his jugular vein wide open, and that he sustained heavy blood loss.

The attack happened on A Module of the Martinez Detention Facility, a wing of the jail used to house Norteño members and associates almost exclusively. Two suspects, Marco Salazar, 23, and Joseph Malfitano, 37, were indicted by a grand jury on attempted murder and gang charges, but prosecutors did not seek an indictment against three others suspected of participating in the attack, court records show.

Grand jury indictment hearings are held in secrecy until their completion; only the prosecutor, the jury and a court reporter are allowed to be present. But the hearing transcripts, released earlier this month, describe how the gang has figured out ways to exploit weaknesses in the jail’s security system.

Jail guards and a gang expert who took the stand said Norteños on A Module have lookouts who monitor a rotating, 360-degree camera, and use sign language to signal when it’s pointed the other way. New inmates are subjected to a so-called “freeze” hazing period, where two gang members are assigned to follow the newcomer around, while higher-ups research him to see if he has been a police informant, harmed children or violated any other gang bylaw.

The freeze periods are well-known to deputies, who testified they are characterized by a chilling feature: Newcomers are forced to wear rubber sandals, not jail shoes, so they won’t be able to run away if they are attacked.

When a stabbing happens, it is part of the gang’s modus operandi to use “never less than three” attackers, Concord police Detective Chris Souza, a gang expert, testified. Yet in this case, by the time deputies got to the attack, only Malfitano and Salazar were present, still punching and kicking the victim, according to the first deputy who arrived.

The goal is typically either to kill the victim, or disfigure him — such as by cutting a gang tattoo or slashing his face — so that he will never be able to walk a general population prison yard again; such scars are interpreted as a sign the victim has fallen out of favor with the gang, Souza testified.

“There’s two people there that are physically attacking him with hands and feet, and one person is using a weapon,” Souza said on the stand, describing a typical Norteño attack. He added the stabber is usually the first person to leave, and will either pass the knife to a cohort or run away and dispose of it himself. This is done “to confuse law enforcement” and protect the person with the weapon, Souza said.

Investigators believe that’s what happened in this case, that someone else was busy disposing of the shank, which was never found, while Malfitano and Salazar were creating a diversion by continuing the attack.

Three other inmates were found with blood spatter on them that day, and none were charged. The weapon could have been a knife fashioned with loose metal, or as rudimentary as a sharpened toothbrush, police testified.

Under California’s gang laws, Malfitano and Salazar can be held liable for stabbing the victim, regardless of whether they used the shank.

A deputy assigned to A Module on May 4, Shawn Murray, testified before the grand jury that he “immediately” ran up a flight of stairs, to where the stabbing occurred, after hearing a commotion. When he got there, Malfitano and Salazar were still assaulting the victim, and ignored Murray’s command to stop.

The victim, “seemed petrified and in shock,” and had a gash on his neck and defensive wounds on his hands, Murray said.

It was later discovered the rotating camera did not capture the assault, but showed Malfitano and Salazar hanging around the victim shortly beforehand.

“Why didn’t they put more cameras around?” one grand juror asked Murray.

“That’s a good question. I can’t answer that,” Murray responded.

The deputies’ descriptions mirror some of the allegations in a recent lawsuit filed by Jearhamel Fanaro, who says he was severely beaten by Norteño members in the jail after he attempted to drop out of the gang. His federal lawsuit, filed through the offices of attorney Qiana Washington, alleges gang members figured out where security camera blind spots are in an outside courtyard, where they lured and beat Fanaro, who was undergoing a “freeze.”

The suit is still in its early stages. In motions to dismiss, the county accused Washington of using a “shotgun” approach — trying several, contradictory legal theories in hope that one will work — and of targeting sheriff’s office, rather than solely suing Fanaro’s attackers, because the county has more money.

One of the defendants, Thomas Leon, filed a handwritten response to the lawsuit from his cell in Pelican Bay State Prison, where he is housed for an unrelated felony conviction. He denied participating in the attack.

Another A Module inmate, Francisco Ramirez, was charged with attempted murder, torture and assault with great bodily injury, in connection with the May 2018 attack on Fanaro, but two other suspects, including Leon, were not charged.

Fanaro’s suit also alleged that deputies were complicit in the attack by looking the other way and giving the attackers a window of opportunity, accusations Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston called “sensationalist” and “absurd” when the suit was filed. The sheriff’s office declined to comment on the more recent stabbing involving Malfitano and Salazar.