Two get prison in killing of teen

Mathis Winkler

Friday, Dec. 21, 2001 | 10 a.m.

District Judge John McGroarty on Thursday sentenced two teenagers to prison for their involvement in the gang-related murder of a 16-year-old girl in January.

Isvi Fabila, 18, will serve a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 25 years in state prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in November.

Eduardo Cisneros, 17, will serve a minimum of two years and a maximum of 10 years in state prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and being an accessory to murder with the intent to promote a criminal gang.

Esmeralda Martinez was shot to death in the doorway of her family's home on Robin Street near Washington Avenue and Rancho Drive because she was "disrespecting" a local gang, investigators said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Frank Cuomo said Martinez's execution-style murder had been carefully planned.

"This woman has absolutely no conscience" Cuomo said of Fabila, referring to a letter she had sent to her boyfriend, a fellow gang member who is serving time for a murder he committed at age 14.

In the letter, Fabila wrote that the charges against her were "all drama" and that she expected to be released on probation after doing "juvy time.

"Don't trip, I'll get out of these mess cause I didn't smoke anyone," she wrote in the letter.

Martinez's mother, Alma, told the judge before sentencing that her daughter's death had devastated her life.

"I lost my house, all my things are impounded," she said crying in Spanish through an interpreter.

Martinez added that she has moved four times since her daughter's murder and still owes $2,000 for her daughter's funeral.

"It's been five months since I cannot meet bills, because I cannot make ends meet," she said.

The judge ordered Fabila, Cisneros and two other men involved in the murder to pay Martinez $4,155 for funeral expenses.

Miguel Jimenez-Arambula, 23, has already been sentenced to two to eight years and is in prison. Ricardo Macias, 18, who allegedly fired the shot that killed Martinez is scheduled to go on trial in March.