A man involved in a throat-slashing attack of a fellow inmate in Theo Lacy Jail in Orange was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 30 months in prison, or credit for time served behind bars.
Mher Darbinyan, 48, of Los Angeles — who was known as Hollywood Mike — pleaded guilty Jan. 3, according to federal prosecutors.
Darbinyan was serving a racketeering conspiracy sentence when he and two other gang members attacked another inmate, Michael Cooper, for the Mexican Mafia, prosecutors said.
Darbinyan “is a leader of the Armenian Power Gang” of Los Angeles, which is affiliated with the Mexican Mafia, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors requested a 36-month sentence to be served consecutively with the raicketeering sentence.
“The defendant and his two co-conspirators beat the victim mercilessly, slashing his neck with a sharp object,” prosecutors said in a sentencing brief. “When his co-conspirators began to attack the victim in his jail cell, the defendant immediately left his table in the common room and joined in.”
Darbinyan is shown in surveillance video “repeatedly punching the victim in the head near the door to the cell,” prosecutors said.
While Cooper battled his way out of his cell, Darbinyan continued beating him, then kicked him when he fell to the floor, prosecutors said.
The attackers dragged the victim under the stairs in the common room and kept beating him until sheriff’s deputies fired a foam baton round at the mob, prosecutors said.
Darbinyan was convicted of in a RICO conspiracy in 2014 and after he won on appeal, he pleaded guilty to RICO, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and was sentenced to 212 months in prison.
Darbinyan is married and has two children and his family continues to support him in custody, prosecutors said.
Co-defendant Robert Amezcua, 52, was convicted in January on one count of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering for an attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, according to prosecutors. Amezcua was scheduled to be sentenced May 20 and faces up to 30 years.
Amezcua was among 31 defendants named in the indictment against the Mexican Mafia in 2022.
Co-defendant Robert Martinez, 41, of Placentia, is scheduled to go on trial June 25 in the jail attack as well as other charges, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, reputed Orange County Mexican Mafia chief Johnny Martinez, allegedly discussed with co-defendant Omar Mejia an order to kill Cooper while in custody at Calipatria State Prison.
Cooper was in trouble with the gang for ordering an attack on another gang member whom Martinez had not signed off on, prosecutors alleged. Cooper was also suspected of triggering a police raid against the gang, prosecutors alleged.
Cooper was attacked Jan. 5, 2018, but survived, and was attacked again on New Year’s Eve 2019, prosecutors said.