Supervisor Hillary Ronen asked a judge to release Mission gang member from probation

Fernando Madrigal, hailed as a youth activist, pleads guilty in Norteño RICO murder case of 15-year-old Day’von Hann

Authorities used screenshots from Fernando Madrigal’s Instagram as evidence in the federal case against him. (Northern District Court Records)

Dear Judge Chan,

I am writing on behalf of Fernando Madrigal, a young man who lives in the district I represent and has deep ties to the community.

Specifically, I am requesting that you allow Fernando to be terminated early from probation so he can focus on his rehabilitation.

— District 9 supervisor Hillary Ronen on her official city letterhead, August 28, 2019

On Feb. 27, 2023, Fernando “Nando” Madrigal, 24, Alvaro “G-Boy” Reina-Cordero, 25, and Oscar “Cutty” Guadron-Diaz, 23, all pleaded guilty to a single federal count of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of life in federal prison. The sentencing will be held June 29, 2023, before U.S. District Judge William Orrick.

The three men were indicted in December 2020 on charges that they were part of a Mission District-based Norteño gang.

If the name Fernando Madrigal sounds familiar, it may be because I’ve written about him in several of my Marina Times Reynolds Rap columns, particularly in reference to the way a pair of San Francisco supervisors held him up as an anti-gun violence youth activist who had turned his life around, despite obvious signs and easily obtainable social media evidence to the contrary. 

On April 9, 2019, District 9 supervisor Hillary Ronen and District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton held a rally on the steps of City Hall to support legislation, sponsored by Walton and co-signed by District 5 supervisor Dean Preston, to permanently shutter Juvenile Hall by Dec. 2021 (as of 2023, it remains open). 

"There is no way in hell that we would put in a situation worse than juvenile hall," Walton said. "What we are talking about here is an alternative to the current juvenile hall and lock up situation.” He and Ronen stood beside then 20-year-old Madrigal as he spoke about spending time at the facility for robbery when he was 13. "Did juvenile hall help me at all? No, and it doesn't help nobody," Madrigal told a receptive audience. "I deal with multiple youth with the work I do and it doesn't help nobody, everyone says the same thing."

But, according to authorities, just two days before that rally, Madrigal offered two large-capacity magazines for sale on Instagram. One day before the rally, Madrigal posted a video of himself holding a gun with a large capacity “drum” magazine at a BART station as a train pulled up. And the following month, he posted a video bragging about being in an enemy gang’s “section,” warning “it’s going to be a murder” if he saw a rival while he was there. 

On June 10, 2019, Madrigal barely survived being shot in the head on Interstate 280. A GoFundMe page by his family describes Madrigal as a well-known community activist who turned to public service after surviving prior incidents where he was shot or stabbed. 

A month after that shooting, at a July 30, 2019, rally against gun violence, Madrigal once again joined Walton on the steps of City Hall, this time alongside Sha’ray Johnson, mother of 15-year-old Day’von Hann, who had been tragically gunned down at 24th and Capp Streets 11 days earlier. Ronen nodded empathetically as Madrigal told attendees that he still couldn’t feel his left hand after the recent shooting. Walton stood next to Madrigal as he hugged Hann’s grieving mother. 

Hann’s killing remained unsolved until Aug. of 2020, when the FBI announced a diabolical twist straight out of a Dateline episode: It was Madrigal who had killed the teenager. In fact, at the time of the rally where Madrigal hugged Hann’s mom and garnered support from Supervisors Walton and Ronen, the police were already investigating the case. 

A little after midnight on July 8, 2019, witnesses reported that the shooter, wearing a black mask and a red hoodie, pointed a rifle in Hann’s direction near a McDonalds on the 3200 block of 24th Street only moments after another suspect questioned a man about whether he was affiliated with the rival Army Street Gang.

Authorities “collected ballistics evidence connecting Hann’s killing to another shooting later that night on Army Street [Caesar Chavez].” A car linked to Madrigal led police on a chase that reached speeds of 120 miles per hour before evading capture. “Video evidence and witnesses put Madrigal’s black Honda at both July 8 shooting scenes, and his cell phone’s location is consistent with the route of the high-speed chase,” prosecutors wrote. “Instagram videos from the days leading up to the murder show Madrigal with a black rifle that he calls his ‘mini chop’ and using a gloved hand to load it with ammunition consistent with the casings recovered from the shooting scenes.”

Madrigal also killed a man a year earlier, according to investigators, on July 12, 2018, near the area around Candlestick Park. The unidentified victim’s body was discovered in Feb. 2020 by tree trimmers working in a wooded area of Oakland, according to the indictment. A month later, the victim’s skull was discovered in a nearby area. Authorities alleged Madrigal lured the victim to a meetup claiming he wanted to buy marijuana.

The indictment also linked all three men to the San Francisco Mission District Norteños, with Cordero and Diaz charged with a January 23, 2018, double shooting in San Francisco in which 20-year-old Duby Ortiz-Guardado was fatally struck by gunfire. Authorities say the defendants left the area briefly then returned, intent on killing Ortiz-Guardado’s girlfriend as well. They allegedly shot her in the face, but she survived. Like Hann, authorities said Ortiz-Guardado was killed simply because he was mistaken for a rival gang member.

To anyone possessing an ounce of commonsense, the stabbings and shootings leading up to the murder indictments would raise red flags about Madrigal’s continued involvement with the Norteños. Several police officers familiar with the Hann case and a former assistant district attorney who worked in the gang unit told me (under condition of anonymity) that “Everyone knew about Nando still being an active Norteño” and that he was “under investigation.”

Since Ronen’s husband, Francisco Ugarte, works in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office where gang members are regular clients, it also seems unlikely he was unaware of the ongoing investigation into Madrigal, Cordero, and Diaz.

Yet Ronen repeatedly tried to help Madrigal. 

In an email dated Aug. 2, 2019, Ronen’s chief of staff, Carolyn Goossen, presented the extensive work done on Madrigal’s behalf after he was stabbed at his apartment building, all at the bequest of Ronen herself. “Spoke directly to Sam Moss [Executive Director at Mission Housing Development Corporation] and the management company of that building,” the list begins. “Sam Moss: Could only move them if there was a vacancy, but no vacancies. Even so, would be hard because of federal financing laws which don’t allow people to jump wait lists.”

Along with a lack of vacancies and not being allowed to jump the line, Goossen bluntly points out that Madrigal has even bigger issues: “Spoke to either chief or DA. The justice system sees him as being gang involved … He was arrested for another case after the stabbing. They were treating him as a perpetrator, not a victim because he was gang involved.”

Goossen concludes, “Carolina thinks you talked to the Chief, can’t remember for sure … Doesn’t remember if we talked to DPH [Department of Public Health]—but did meet with SFSVIP [Street Violence Intervention Program]—which is under DPH … Spoke with Joaquin Torres—head of housing authority.”

DESPITE GANG INVOLVEMENT, RONEN ASKS JUDGE FOR HELP

After Goossen’s correspondence, Ronen is clearly aware of Madrigal’s continued gang activity, yet three weeks later, on August 28, 2019, she uses her official city stationery to write a letter to San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan requesting that he “allow Fernando to be terminated early from probation so he can focus on his rehabilitation.”

Ronen even tells Judge Chan that Madrigal worked with her office on “legislative efforts” and has “experienced repeated gun violence and physical and mental traumas and needs to relocate to a safe place as soon as possible.”

Despite the district attorney, police chief, health officials, and housing authorities telling her that Madrigal could not “jump the line” for a new apartment, and even if there were vacancies he wouldn’t be eligible for help because of his gang ties, Ronen doesn’t listen.

By using her official title and letterhead in an attempt to curry favor with a judge, Ronen also potentially violated Statement of Incompatible Activities Section IV C 2 (USING CITY LETTERHEAD, CITY TITLE, OR E-MAIL) which states, “No officer or employee may use City letterhead, City title, City e-mail, or any other City resource, for any communication that may lead the recipient of the communication to think that the officer or employee is acting in an official capacity when the officer or employee is not.” By asking a judge to remove a gang member from his probation so she can help him secure taxpayer-funded housing, Ronen certainly appears to have crossed that line.

The timeline in the Madrigal case is also damning for Ronen:

July 8, 2019, Madrigal killed 15-year-old Day’von Hann and was involved in a second shooting, leading police on a high-speed pursuit while fleeing the scene.

July 30, 2019, Ronen and Walton have Madrigal speak at a justice rally for Hann, where he speaks out against gun violence and hugs Hann’s grieving mother.

Aug. 2, 2019, Ronen’s chief of staff, Carolyn Goossen, presents the extensive work done on Madrigal’s behalf after he was stabbed at his apartment building, all at the bequest of Ronen herself.

Aug. 28, 2019, after Goossen tells her all avenues to help Madrigal are exhausted due to his continued gang involvement, Ronen uses her position as supervisor and her official stationery to write a letter to a judge requesting that he “allow Fernando to be terminated early from probation so he can focus on his rehabilitation” and “relocate to a safe place as soon as possible.”

According to federal prosecutors, Madrigal had been a known active gang member for many years, associated with a subset of the Norteños that operate in the Mission District known as Locos North Side, or LNS. Citing the Instagram posts on Madrigal’s account, nando.needitall, as well as police reports and details from the Hann murder investigation, authorities said Madrigal led a dual life, but it was Walton and Ronen who helped make it possible by touting him as a “youth activist,” ignoring obvious red flags, and placing him on a pedestal right next to the mother of one of his victims.

“This murder was senseless and horrific,” FBI Special Agent Craig Fair said of Madrigal at an August 14, 2020, news conference. “Hann, just 15 years old, was targeted because of the neighborhood he lived in.” And the supervisor of that neighborhood was apparently more interested in helping a cold-blooded killer relocate to a safe place than she was in keeping the streets safe for an innocent child.