A jury in Chicago found a Mexican national not guilty of offering a $10,000 bounty for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino despite prosecutors' claims that the man was a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings gang.
Concretely, Juan Espinoza-Martinez was acquitted of one count of murder for hire, a charge prosecutors said could have carried a 10-year prison sentence.
The accusation stemmed from a series of messages Espinoza-Martinez sent to Adrian Martinez, a 44-year-old construction company owner who had also worked for several years as a paid government informant. In the messages, Espinoza-Martinez sent Martinez a photo of Bovino along with text that read: "$2,000 when they grab him ... $10,000 if you kill him ... Latin Kings are on him."
According to an affidavit written by a Homeland Security Investigations special agent and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Espinoza-Martinez agreed to speak with law enforcement after his arrest, admitting he sent the photo and message but claimed they were content he had seen circulating on social media.
Espinoza-Martinez told investigators he "did not know the name" of Bovino but knew he was "a big boss in Chicago involved in immigration enforcement."
Despite Espinoza-Martinez's claim that the messages were not a serious threat, prosecutors argued the Snapchat messages were not meant as a joke. They accused him of being "fixated and obsessed" with Bovino and cited additional messages in which he criticized immigration enforcement efforts.
"Those words do not indicate that this was a joke," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan told jurors during closing arguments. "Those words have meaning. They are not innocent and harmless words."
In contrast, defense attorneys argued the government failed to present evidence showing Espinoza-Martinez took any steps to carry out a crime, characterizing the messages as "neighborhood gossip" sent one day after he returned home from work. They also argued he never followed up on the messages and did not have the money he claimed to offer.
"Sending a message about gossip you heard in the neighborhood is not murder for hire," defense attorney Dena Singer told jurors. "It's not a federal crime."
During the trial, attorneys played portions of Espinoza-Martinez's interview with law enforcement, in which he said he sent the messages without much thought while scrolling through social media after work.
"I didn't threaten anyone," he told investigators. "I'm not saying that I was telling them to do it."
When Espinoza-Martinez was arrested on Oct. 6, DHS described him as a Latin Kings gang member and a "thug," but U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow later barred testimony about the street gang, citing a lack of evidence tying him to the group.
Following the verdict, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller criticized the decision on social media, arguing that judges and juries are "empowering violent insurrection against the government in an effort to stop ICE from removing criminal alien invaders."
The Left is fighting to legalize domestic terrorism. It is a crisis of grave magnitude and it is the duty of all judges of conscience to work alongside the government to end this growing terrorism and restore even a modicum of faith in the justice system. https://t.co/1RluVnnATf
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) January 22, 2026
As noted by the Chicago Sun-Times, Espinoza-Martinez is one of 31 individuals charged in Chicago federal court with non-immigration crimes linked to the Trump administration's Operation Midway Blitz, an immigration enforcement campaign that targeted Chicago and its suburbs last year. Following Espinoza-Martinez's acquittal, 15 of those charged have now been cleared.
Originally published on Latin Times
