A 54-year-old man involved in a throat-slashing attack on a fellow Orange County Jail inmate was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison.
Robert Amezcua, who was convicted in federal court in January 2024, was charged in connection with a federal racketeering indictment of the Orange County chapter of the Mexican Mafia. Amezcua was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter for committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering.
Amezcua joined an attack on inmate Michael Cooper on Dec. 31, 2019, in the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, prosecutors said.
Amezcua pummeled Cooper while another inmate slashed the victim’s throat with a razor blade, prosecutors said. Amezcua was among 31 defendants named in the indictment against the Mexican Mafia in 2022. Amezcua hit the victim 20 times while another inmate slashed the throat of the victim with a razor blade, prosecutors said.
The victim survived the attack.
Co-defendant Mher Darbinyan, 50, of Los Angeles, is serving a 30-month federal prison sentence handed down in May 2024.
Co-defendant Robert Martinez, 43, of Placentia, is scheduled to go on trial in August for the jail attack as well as other charges, prosecutors said.
Of the 31 defendants in the RICO indictment, four have been convicted at trial and 16 others have pleaded guilty. Three are scheduled to go on trial in July and eight others are scheduled for trial in August.
According to the indictment, reputed Orange County Mexican Mafia chief Johnny Martinez 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 that Martinez had not signed off on, prosecutors alleged. Cooper was also suspected of triggering a police raid against the gang, prosecutors said.
Cooper was attacked Jan. 5, 2018, but survived, and was attacked again on New Year’s Eve 2019, prosecutors said.