Santa Maria MS-13 Leader Emedalio Bonilla-Mejia Sentencing Memo

Case: 2:17-cr-00164-EAS Doc #: 1003 Filed: 03/09/20 Page: 1 of 11 PAGEID #: 4057
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO
EASTERN DIVISION AT COLUMBUS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, :
Plaintiff, :
vs. : Case No. 2:17-cr-164(15)
JOSE BONILLA-MEIJA, : JUDGE SARGUS

aka Emedalio Meija-Bonilla,
:
Defendant. :
DEFENDANT’S SENTENCING MEMORANDUM
GUILTY PLEA AND GUIDELINES:
Defendant Emedalio Bonilla-Meija (“Emedalio”) is before the Court for
sentencing following acceptance of his guilty pleas to conspiracy to commit
racketeering, and two counts of murder in aid of racketeering. The probation
officer has calculated a Guideline imprisonment “range” of life in prison. Because
Emedalio did not agree to provide assistance to the government in the
investigation or prosecution of others, and the plea agreement did not include any
language for a downward departure because there was no cooperation, the life
imprisonment “range” is binding.
BORN TO TRAGEDY:
A popular online encyclopedia defines “Determinism” as “. . . the
philosophical belief that all events are determined completely by previously
existing causes.”1 Because of genetics and environment, Determinism argues that
1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism, accessed March 6, 2020.
individuals do not choose who they are, or whom they become. They have very
little control, if any, over the choices they seem to make. Id.
Our criminal justice system, to the contrary, assumes full agency on the
part of the convicted. Possession of freewill and the ability to conform one’s
behavior to the requirements of the law are presumed. The impact of Emedalio’s
unimaginably tragic childhood, along with his psychological and neurological
deficits,2 call into question the grounds for this assumption. This does not change
the fact that society has a right to defend itself and a duty to prevent further harm
from those unlucky enough to be “born a killer.” An understanding of
Determinism though, especially in light of advances in brain science, lessens our
reliance on moral opprobrium to do so.
Emedalio was born 31 years ago in Canton Paratao, a rural area in
northeast El Salvador. His mother, Maria, did not have the benefit of prenatal care
or any other semblance of modern medicine. She suffered from malnutrition
during the duration of her pregnancy, and due to the family’s limited resources,
Emedalio lacked proper nutrition and medical care during his early childhood as
well. Like most small hamlets in El Salvador, there were no hospitals or medical
clinics near his family’s homestead.
As a young boy, Emedalio fell gravely ill and was hospitalized for a month.
He suffered from a high fever, excruciating headaches, and severe neck pain.
Although records of his hospitalization are not available, it is most likely Emedalio
2
Please see Dr. Llorente’s Neuro-psychological report attached to
Defendant’s mitigation package, and submitted by the defense to U.S.
Probation for attachment to the Final Pre-Sentence Investigation Report.
2
was suffering from meningitis or encephalitis.
Emedalio’s living conditions as a child were harsh and unhealthy. There was
no indoor plumbing, no refrigeration, no toilets, no modern building construction,
and no readily accessible medical facilities. He lived with his parents and siblings
in a one room house, with a dirt floor; the walls were constructed of sticks and
mud, and the roof was nothing more than twisted branches and straw.
The one bright spot in Emedalio’s life was his mother, Maria. She was
affectionate and doting. But, through no fault of her own, she was uneducated
and therefore ignorant of the harmful effects her home’s environment had on
Emedalio’s development. As a result, she tolerated the violent and drunken
behavior of Emedalio’s father, Lucio, for far too long.
Lucio’s alcoholism subjected Maria and Emedalio to incessant physical and
emotional abuse. Lucio would explode in drunken rages, beating Maria in the
presence of Emedalio. To fuel his drinking binges, Lucio would spend the family’s
meager resources on liquor. He even sold pieces of the roof from their family home
for money to feed his addiction.3
Eventually, Emedalio’s mother reached the limits of her tolerance and threw
Lucio out, when Emedalio was six-years-old. Though still young, much of the
developmental damage done to Emedalio’s brain was permanent.4 Lucio died a
3
Please see the mitigation letter and report submitted by defense counsel
for attachment to the Probation Department’s Final Pre-Sentence Investigation
Report.
4
How Childhood Abuse Changes the Brain; January 29, 2020;
https://www.verywellmind.com/childhood-abuse-changes-the-brain-2330401;
Accessed 3/9/2020; And, Chronic Stress Can Damage Brain Structure and
3
year later from cirrhosis of the liver.
Because of Lucio’s alcoholism and death, Emedalio lacked a positive male
role-model for the rest of his formidable years. In fact, his only role models (MS-13
gang members) were extremely negative.
THE DEHUMANIZING EFFECTS OF WAR:
The cruelty in Emedalio’s home environment was surpassed only by the
violence in the countryside. At the time, El Salvador was not the serene, bucolic
landscape as seen in other Central American countries like the popular tourist
destinations of Belize or Costa Rica. In stark contrast, the El Salvadoran
countryside was being torn apart by a civil war. As a result, young Emedalio
witnessed acts of savage brutality, that deeply scared his psyche. No boy chooses
to be so damaged.
Emedalio recalls that when he was only eight years old, he was visiting a
small village and saw a drunken man on horseback “acting crazy.” Annoyed,
another man shot him dead for “disturbing the peace.” When he was eleven years
old, Emedalio was watching his cousin in a soccer game. His cousin scored a goal
and was exuberantly celebrating his accomplishment, when a player on the
opposite team became enraged, retrieved a gun and shot Emedalio’s cousin to
death on the soccer field. Then, when he was sixteen or seventeen, Emedalio
watched in horror as his brother-in-law chopped a man to death with a machete,
Connectivity; Psychology Today; February 12, 2024, citing:

https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2013190; Citing: Chetty, S., Friedman,
A., Taravosh-Lahn, K. et al. Stress and glucocorticoids promote
oligodendrogenesis in the adult hippocampus. Mol Psychiatry 19, 1275–1283
(2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.190
4
for cheating at a game of cards. The result of Emedalio’s exposure to all this
gratuitous violence was undiagnosed (and untreated) post-traumatic stress
disorder.
SIGNIFICANT INTELLECTUAL DEFECTS:
In addition to suffering the above traumas, Emedalio displayed significant
intellectual deficits as a child. He had but a few months of schooling and
experienced difficulties learning basic life skills. Mundane tasks like tying his
shoelaces were herculean obstacles. Rather than getting the education and
nurturing he needed to succeed in life, Emedalio spent the majority of his waking
hours working in the fields, performing household chores, or accompanying his
mother to a nearby town to help her sell crops and eggs to support the family.
MS-13 FILLS THE VOID:
At the impressionable age of ten, Emedalio was approached by members of
MS-13 during one of his visits to the market with his mother. The gang members
saw Emedalio’s vulnerability and, like so many child predators, “groomed” him for
eventual membership in their gang. They enticed him with snacks and candy;
invited him to play soccer and to “hangout,” like adolescent boys are wont to do.
They even tried – without much success – to teach him how to read. With the
other young members of MS-13, Emedalio had found a home where he was
protected from danger and was literally fed and cared for by the father figures he
never had.
The gang was patient in their pursuit of this intellectually and
psychologically damaged youngster. Their recruitment efforts were finally
5
successful and Emedalio was “jumped” into the gang when he was 17 years-old.
This portentous event set the trajectory of Emedalio’s destiny – to spending the
rest of his life in prison.
PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES:
Emedalio entered the United States on three separate occasions. His first
entry at age 19 was quickly thwarted. He was caught at the border and returned
to El Salvador.
Once back in El Salvador, Emedalio married his childhood sweetheart, Judi.
The couple had a baby girl. This young father truly wanted a better life for his
family. So, he ventured a second attempt to enter the United States. He
succeeded in 2009.
Between 2009 and 2013, Emedalio toiled in the fields of California, picking
lettuce and celery. The money was good, more than he could ever earn back in El
Salvador. The young father and husband avoided trouble, and faithfully
transmitted the bulk of his earnings to his wife back home. After four years of
hard labor, in service of America’s migrant-dependent agricultural industry,
Emedalio returned to his family in El Salvador.
While home, Emedalio and Judi had two more children, a boy and a girl.
The baby girl was not healthy. When she was six months old, like her father before
her, she was stricken by a very high fever and spent time in the hospital. While
there, she was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy and severe scoliosis. She then
began experiencing seizures and was soon unable to talk or walk. She needs
expensive medication to control her disease.
6
The daughter’s fate caused Emedalio to return to the United States for the
third time in 2014. He figured he could work in the California fields and once
again send his earnings home to fund his daughter’s medical care, and provide for
the subsistence of his wife and other children. For Emedalio’s return to the United
States, the expression “third time’s a charm” proved apocryphal.
Unfortunately, going back to America was not as simple as before. At this
point in his life, Emedalio could not escape MS-13 and was required to honor his
oath to protect his fellow gang members and their “territory.”
After a while, job opportunities dried up in California and Emedalio moved
to Ohio, obtaining work installing floor tile from 7:30 a.m. into the late afternoon
or early evening, six days a week. He continued sending money to his wife and
children in El Salvador.
ROLL IN THE OFFENSE:
In large part the government’s sentencing memorandum accurately recites
the events surrounding the deaths of the three victims. However, defense counsel
believe the prosecution is mistaken in characterizing Emedalio as having “a
leadership position in the organization.” The U.S. Probation Department likewise
did not find Emedalio to be a leader. (ECF No. N/A; Final PSR; ¶¶ 93, 100, 113).
Emedalio otherwise affirms the statement of facts supporting his guilty pleas. The
details of his crimes are admittedly shocking but not surprising considering how
he learned to kill in El Salvador as a young boy.
Because his was potentially a capital case, this Court approved funding for
a comprehensive mental evaluation of Emedalio. The evaluation was completed
7
by Dr. Antolin Llorente, a highly qualified forensic neuropsychologist with
extensive experience in death penalty prosecutions.
Dr. Llorente spent nine hours interviewing Emedalio and administering
diagnostic tests. He expended additional time interviewing the mother and
reviewing the findings of the defense’s mitigation specialist. Based upon clinical
impressions, the historical evidence, and his test results, Dr. Llorente determined
that Emedalio falls within a borderline range of intellectual functioning. The
condition is a likely consequence of organic brain damage (encephalopathy) that
he suffered as a child.
To be sure, not every individual with comparable intellectual deficits finds
his way into the criminal justice system on RICO and murder charges. However,
not all developmentally challenged individuals have the misfortune of growing up
under the conditions Emedalio did and in a third-world country torn by civil war.
Under these circumstances, “jumping” into a gang can, in the mind of an
intellectually and psychologically damaged adolescent, seem like the only viable
“career path.” The gang was a source of protection from the violence Emedalio
saw as a child; and, as he was “unfit” for military service, he was an easy mark for
MS-13.
As cogently stated by Dr. Llorente, “individuals like this defendant with
such a low level of intellect, albeit not intellectually disabled, are not capable of
planning or masterminding the events in his indictment, but rather are followers
and participants in such events who do not take into consideration all the
potential ramifications and risks leading to negative outcomes associated with
8
their active actions or simply passive participation in such activities.” (Emphasis
in original).
Although libertarian purists may dismiss the use of the term “determinism”
to explain the influence of biologic and environmental factors upon Emedalio’s life
course, Dr. Llorente certainly alludes to it when he writes:
He essentially had two choices as a very young child as is the case in

the majority of cases in his hamlet in El Salvador related to his
joining MS-13. He either joined the gang or be killed, further causing
increasingly debilitating stress in this defendant over time, but
particularly at a critical stage in his development as a child and
adolescent. He was also exposed to significant violence as a youngster
and even experienced detrimental events at a young age quite capable
of traumatizing a youngster (e.g. seeing dead bodies, etc.) All these
factors in all likelihood created an unstable environment for an
individual like Bonilla-Meija. When coupled with limited psychological
resources and coping mechanisms, not to mention barriers created
by psychosocial factors, this individual was placed at risk, regardless
of intellectual level, and at even greater risk, due to his executive
deficits, long before he became involved in this case.
LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE:
Fortunately, the government concluded the death penalty was not an
appropriate sanction in Emedalio’s case. In light of Emedalio’s mitigation evidence,
acceptance of responsibility – “You either kill, or be killed” – and the evidence
presented in discovery by the government, a term of life imprisonment
accommodates the interests of both parties. There being no latitude for a lesser
sentence under the terms of the plea agreement, defense counsel yields the
instinctual impulse to plead for something less than what the Sentencing
Guidelines or statute recommends or requires.
9
RESTITUTION:
The initial Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”) did not include a
restitution amount. Paragraph 165 of the Final PSR states that “[r]estitution in the
amount of $1,653.03 is owed to the funeral home where the remains of Carlos
Serrano Ramos continues to reside.” The PSR does not identify the funeral home
or the evidence supporting the claimed amount. The defense objects to the
proposed restitution order.
18 U.S.C. §3664(e) states the proper amount of restitution must be resolved
by a preponderance of the evidence. The government has the burden of proof on
this issue.
It is defense counsel’s understanding that a copy of a funeral home invoice
or statement was not provided to the probation officer. Absent such
documentation, the restitution claim is speculative and not supported by a
preponderance of the evidence.
PLACEMENT RECOMMENDATION:
Finally, Emedalio requests the Court make a recommendation to the Bureau
of Prisons to place him in a correctional facility in the State of California, as near
to the City of Los Angeles as practical.
s/Andrew Avellano
ANDREW P. AVELLANO (0062907)
4181 East Main St.
Columbus, OH 43213
Tel. (614) 237-8050
Fax: (614) 237-3505
Email: drewavo@ woway.com
10
And,
s/Dennis Belli
DENNIS C. BELLI (0025216)
536 South High St. Fl. 2
Columbus, Ohio 43215-5785
Tel. : (614) 300-2911
Fax : (888) 901-8040
E-Mail:
bellilawoffice@yahoo.com
ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENDANT

EMEDALIO MEJIA-BONILLA
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that I filed this document using the CM/ECF electronic case
filing system on 9th day of March 2020. The system will automatically transmit
a Notice of Electronic Filing to the United States Attorney for the Southern District
of Ohio.
/s/ Andrew Avellano

ANDREW P. AVELLANO (0062907)
ATTORNEY FOR DEFENDANT
11

Santa Maria MS-13 Leader Emedalio Bonilla-Mejia Sentencing Memo

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Case: 2:17-cr-00164-EAS Doc #: 1003 Filed: 03/09/20 Page: 1 of 11 PAGEID #: 4057

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, :

vs. : Case No. 2:17-cr-164(15)

JOSE BONILLA-MEIJA, : JUDGE SARGUS

DEFENDANT’S SENTENCING MEMORANDUM

GUILTY PLEA AND GUIDELINES:

Defendant Emedalio Bonilla-Meija (“Emedalio”) is before the Court for

sentencing following acceptance of his guilty pleas to conspiracy to commit

racketeering, and two counts of murder in aid of racketeering. The probation

officer has calculated a Guideline imprisonment “range” of life in prison. Because

Emedalio did not agree to provide assistance to the government in the

imprisonment “range” is binding.

A popular online encyclopedia defines “Determinism” as “. . . the

philosophical belief that all events are determined completely by previously

existing causes.”1 Because of genetics and environment, Determinism argues that

unimaginably tragic childhood, along with his psychological and neurological

from those unlucky enough to be “born a killer.” An understanding of

Determinism though, especially in light of advances in brain science, lessens our

reliance on moral opprobrium to do so.

Emedalio was born 31 years ago in Canton Paratao, a rural area in

or any other semblance of modern medicine. She suffered from malnutrition

clinics near his family’s homestead.

was suffering from meningitis or encephalitis.

no indoor plumbing, no refrigeration, no toilets, no modern building construction,

Emedalio’s development. As a result, she tolerated the violent and drunken

behavior of Emedalio’s father, Lucio, for far too long.

Lucio’s alcoholism subjected Maria and Emedalio to incessant physical and

for money to feed his addiction.3

developmental damage done to Emedalio’s brain was permanent.4 Lucio died a

year later from cirrhosis of the liver.

Because of Lucio’s alcoholism and death, Emedalio lacked a positive male

gang members) were extremely negative.

THE DEHUMANIZING EFFECTS OF WAR:

The cruelty in Emedalio’s home environment was surpassed only by the

destinations of Belize or Costa Rica. In stark contrast, the El Salvadoran

and was exuberantly celebrating his accomplishment, when a player on the

watched in horror as his brother-in-law chopped a man to death with a machete,

Connectivity; Psychology Today; February 12, 2024, citing:

gratuitous violence was undiagnosed (and untreated) post-traumatic stress

SIGNIFICANT INTELLECTUAL DEFECTS:

In addition to suffering the above traumas, Emedalio displayed significant

intellectual deficits as a child. He had but a few months of schooling and

hours working in the fields, performing household chores, or accompanying his

MS-13 FILLS THE VOID:

At the impressionable age of ten, Emedalio was approached by members of

The gang was patient in their pursuit of this intellectually and

psychologically damaged youngster. Their recruitment efforts were finally

rest of his life in prison.

PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES:

Once back in El Salvador, Emedalio married his childhood sweetheart, Judi.

family. So, he ventured a second attempt to enter the United States. He

hard labor, in service of America’s migrant-dependent agricultural industry,

Emedalio returned to his family in El Salvador.

expensive medication to control her disease.

States, the expression “third time’s a charm” proved apocryphal.

Unfortunately, going back to America was not as simple as before. At this

oath to protect his fellow gang members and their “territory.”

After a while, job opportunities dried up in California and Emedalio moved

ROLL IN THE OFFENSE:

In large part the government’s sentencing memorandum accurately recites

believe the prosecution is mistaken in characterizing Emedalio as having “a

leadership position in the organization.” The U.S. Probation Department likewise