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Kelly Deshannon booking photo as used in trial as exhibit for prosecution, provided to Law&Crime by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California (Los Angeles).
Kelly Deshannon was the secretary to the Mexican Mafia’s top imprisoned shot-caller, helping violent gangsters in and out of jail sell drugs, coordinate armed robberies, extortion schemes and shootings, but after a jury found her guilty last year on a multitude of felony charges, a judge in California has finally sentenced her this week.
Deshannon, 42, was sentenced to seven years in prison, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show, after she was convicted in July after prosecutors laid out evidence to a jury of her record under the watchful eye of jailed Mexican mafioso Sefrino “Spooky” Gonzalez, a leader inside of the Michael Lerma Cell in the Mexican Mafia or “La Eme.” The network, according to federal prosecutors, is at least 140 members strong inside of California prisons.
In a statement from the District Attorney’s office announcing the sentence, prosecutors noted that while Gonzalez held control over a profitable drug trade, he relied on a network of foot soldiers and secretaries like Deshannon to pull off his robberies on the outside to keep cash flowing.
Deshannon was part of one attempted armed robbery in July 2013 when Gonzalez turned to her to help him steal a Mercedes-Benz SUV. In sentencing documents, prosecutors said Gonzalez told her he was going to send another Mexican Mafia soldier to rob a victim of their car keys with a “f—— gun to her head.”
“I’ll help do anything I can,” Deshannon replied, according to court records.
In recorded jail calls, prosecutors say that proved to be true. She was the only member of the mafia who knew the victim, identified in records as E.N., personally.
A day later, Deshannon gave up the victim’s home address to Mafia Senora Cheryl Castaneda who tapped another crew member, Jose Valencia Gonzalez, aka “Swifty,” to go with Deshannon to do the deed.
Once at the woman’s home, prosecutors said two gangsters grabbed the victim and dragged her outside. A person identified in records only as M.A. tried to intervene. But “Swifty” shot M.A. and Deshannon and the crew fled.
Moments later, Deshannon and two others called Sefrino Gonzalez on a record prison call.
“All three Lerma Cell members admitted to their participation in the attempted armed robbery, and [Deshannon] proposed more ways to steal the Mercedes SUV,” a sentencing memorandum states.
“Even today, defendant refuses to take responsibility for her crimes and their serious and significant consequences,” prosecutors wrote last year.
M.A. survived the shooting and testified at trial in California that even a decade later, he suffers from PTSD.
A trove of jail calls were brought out at trial, according to records, and it showed Deshannon, time and again, continuing to do the dirty work her bosses ordered, whether it was to extort “taxes” from inmates or drug dealers on the outside. Even after the robbery in July 2013, she “continued to act as secretary for Gonzalez and the Lerma Cell.”
Records show jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting her on several charges including conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, committing a violent crime in support of racketeering activity (VICAR), and using a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
The head of the Lerma cell, Michael Lerma, was indicted in 2018 but he has not yet faced trial. That gets underway this July. He remains in detention. Lerma has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
