Police still searching for the killer of the wife of a gang
leader
Gilroy – More than a year after her body was discovered off Hecker Pass Highway, Crystal Ann Morado’s killer remains at large. Her marriage to a general in the Nuestra Familia prison gang months prior to her death has led investigators to believe the slaying may be gang-related.

The petite 20-year-old Salinas resident was found slumped over in her car by a commercial trucker on Jan. 31, 2004, just east of Pole Line Road. He passed her vehicle at about 11:30am with its lights on and motor still running, and on his return trip an hour later he noticed the car was in the same state, so he stopped.

Upon approaching the vehicle he saw blood on her and drove to where he had cell phone reception to call 911. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Crystal Ann Morado was linked with James “Tibbs” Morado, one of the top five leaders of Nuestra Familia, for several months before her death.

“I think it’s safe to say she had gang ties,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Dean Baker, who has been investigating the case for the past year. “She was married to a ‘NF’ general.”

Morado was serving a lifetime prison sentence since the 1970s at Pelican Bay State Prison when his wife was killed. He pleaded guilty last September to additional federal racketeering conspiracy charges that involved drug trafficking and two murders.

Baker would not say whether Morado is a suspect in the murder, but did say he was contacted by investigators.

“We tried to talk to him, but he doesn’t want to talk to us,” he said.

Nuestra Familia is a prison-based gang that has spread onto the streets, Baker said.

“Gilroy is a well known NF town,” he added.

Gilroy is considered the birthplace and breeding grounds of the NF, said former City Councilor Charlie Morales, who served for more than 30 years as a probation officer for the juvenile justice system.

Norteño gang members tend to identify with Nuestra Familia and are considered their foot soldiers, carrying out orders administered from inside prison walls, explained Anti-Crime Team Investigator Joseph Deras of the Gilroy Police Department.

Messages are delivered a number of ways including written in code on tiny scraps of paper rolled up and hidden in various orifices of a visitor’s body and disseminated on the streets.

According to Deras, while there are a handful of Nuestra Familia gang members in the city, Gilroy police are aware who they are and what they are doing.

Police would not speculate on a motive for Morado’s killing.

However, her death came following the restructuring of Nuestra Familia, after her husband and 20 other gang members were indicted on federal charges for violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. Morado was sent to another federal prison outside California.

After RICO, a vacuum effect took place. Young Nuestra Familia underlings no longer wanted to submit to out-of-state leadership and rival Sureño gang members, who typically affiliate with the Nuestra Familia’s enemy gang the Mexican Mafia, and tried to rise up and claim more territory, Deras said.

In the gang culture – there is no snitching to law enforcement and no getting out.

“Once you’re in you’re in,” Deras explained. “They’ll sacrifice family for (each other.)”

The last break in the Morado case occurred mid-January, and investigators plan to travel to Salinas to conduct interviews.

“We’ve had quite a bit of help talking to citizens,” Baker said.

Police would not confirm how Morado was killed because the investigation is still under way, but bullet casings were found at the scene.

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