Former gangster Rene “Boxer” Enriquez earned high praise for his work as a snitch from the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, and the district attorney s offices in LA, Orange and Ventura counties. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20, 2015.
California Governor Jerry Brown has blocked the mooted parole of notorious Mexican mafia hitman Rene "Boxer" Enriquez.
In his decision, Gov. Brown said that while the killer had "provided officials with valuable information" in his role as a snitch, he still poses "an unreasonable danger to society" due to his "decades-long record of violent crime."
Enriquez has been in prison since 1993, and is serving a sentence of 20 years-to life in prison for two murders, multiple assaults and conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances.
Gov. Brown said that, as his address would have to be made public due to his status as a sex offender, his release would pose a damage to Enriquez himself, his family, neighbors and parole officers.
Enriquez' attorney said he would not immediately appeal the decision.
The governor's decision was backed by former Orange County Deputy District Attorney Rudy Lowenstein.
"My reaction to the Governor's decision is that it's spot on. When I cross-examined him on two separate occasions... he was still proud of what he had done with the Mexican mafia," Lowenstein said.
It previously emerged the California Parole Board (CPB) recommended his release after he presented the written gratitude of some of California’s top cops, including the Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, for his work as an informant
The deputy commissioner of the CPB was impressed by the amount of letters that were produced supporting Enriquez, saying calling them a few would be "an understatement."
However a letter that actually recommended him for parole, which was sent by someone in the LA County Sheriff’s Department, had not been green-lighted. A department spokesman said any recommendation for Enriquez' release "was done without approval of the sheriff."
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In 1989, he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. One of his victims was a female drug dealer he suspected was stealing drugs from him, and the second was a fellow gang member who had ran away from a fight.
He was controversially given a SWAT escort to an event hosted by the LAPD in downtown Los Angeles last month, where he gave a crowd of about 125 people a firsthand insight about the inner-workings of the criminal enterprise.
