“I’m remorseful for what I’ve done. I apologize to the
family of Anthony Benesh,” “Downtown” Johnny Romo, 48, told the judge, crying. "I took a man’s life. It’s been a heavy
burden on me for many years. Now I have to live with it.”
Romo rose to become a sergeant-at-arms in the Bandidos’
national chapter before he turned informant and became a key prosecution
witness in the three-month trial of former national president Jeffrey Fay Pike
and then-vice president John Xavier Portillo. The pair was sentenced last week
to life in prison without parole for leading the Bandidos’ racketeering
conspiracy.
Romo faced up to life in prison without parole in the 2006
murder of a member of the Hell’s Angels, but because he provided substantial
assistance, prosecutors filed a motion seeking a reduction in sentence.
His cooperation came with a price.
Prosecutor Eric Fuchs told Senior U.S. District Judge David
Alan Ezra that Romo was the top-ranking cooperator in their racketeering case
and now has a “green light” over his head. The feds recovered a letter signed
from ex-vice president John Portillo authorizing the hit on Romo, Fuchs said.
Despite that threat, Romo said he would testify again if
necessary.
“I will continue to cooperate with the government if they
ever need an expert witness on an outlaw motorcycle gang, ” Romo told the
judge.
Over two days on the stand in March, Romo testified that
Portillo, a national Bandidos sergeant-at-arms at the time, passed down a
directive from president Pike that Romo was to put a squad together to kill
Anthony Benesh, who had planned to start a Hells Angels chapter in Austin. The
beef was over territory. Texas is considered the Bandidos’ homeland and turf.
Romo said he picked full-patch members of the Bandidos and
his own brother, Robert Romo, who was trying to join the club. They took the
information Portillo had provided about Benesh, watched for their quarry for
two days at his house and followed him as he went to eat at a pizza restaurant
in Northwest Austin.
On a Saturday evening in March 2006, Benesh was killed by a
rifle bullet in front of his girlfriend and two sons. According to testimony
from the Romos, Robert Romo delivered the fatal shot from a scope-fitted hunting
rifle as Johnny Romo, in a separate car, gave him instructions over a two-way
radio.
Johnny Romo testified that the hit made him Pike’s go-to
person for carrying out “beat-downs” and other similar enforcement tasks. His
jobs included revoking the patches of Bandidos members in Central American
chapters during a period of infighting within the biker club, which had
chapters worldwide.
Romo began cooperating with federal authorities in spring
2014 after a drug arrest. He wore a wire to record Portillo and other members
of the organization make incriminating statements. But Romo also withheld
information that he’d been involved in Benesh’s killing. He didn’t mention it
until agents confronted him after he’d already been sentenced to 24 months in
prison on drug charges — far less than the 60 months he originally faced.
The Romos pleaded guilty in September 2017 to murder and
firearm charges in aid of racketeering in connection with Benesh’s killing. Two
members of the Bandidos’ San Antonio Centro Chapter, Norberto “Hammer” Serna
Jr., 37, and Jesse James “Kronic” Benavidez, 41, pleaded guilty in September
2017 to discharging a firearm during murder in aid of racketeering because they
were part of the Benesh hit crew.
During the sentencing Wednesday, Johnny Romo shed tears and
paused several times when his voice broke as he apologized for killing Benesh.
“He was a father to his children that I took away,” Romo
said. “He was somebody’s son, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, and a friend to
someone. Everyone is suffering for what I’ve done."
“I apologize to the court and society. I apologize to my
family here for letting (them) down.”
SOURCE: My San Antonio
