Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Come on a ride along with a Veteran Homicide Detective as the twists and turns of the job suddenly end his career and nearly his life; discover how something wonderful is born out of the Darkness. Embark on the journey from helping people on their worst days, to bringing life, excitement and smiles on their best days.
Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
The Cartel, McDonalds and a Spare Tire: In the Shadows of a Cartel's Reach
What drives someone to cross the line from business to betrayal in the deadly world of drug cartels? This episode explores the chilling details of a cartel-related murder that shook the city of Gresham to its core. Follow the intricate web of deceit spun by Andrew Sherrill, whose dangerous ties to drug dealer Cesar Estradinava and a powerful Mexican cartel led to his untimely, execution-style death. We unravel the complex investigation that ensued, shedding light on the harrowing realities faced by detectives as they untangle the threads of crime and betrayal lurking beneath the surface.
We delve into the heart of multiple homicide investigations, revealing the relentless pursuit of justice by law enforcement officers working with limited resources. Learn about the personal and professional challenges encountered while balancing a high-stakes murder case with the broader web of cartel connections. Surveillance footage, phone records, and mysterious vehicles all play crucial roles in uncovering the truth behind Sherrill's murder. The episode further examines the dangerous game played by key figures like Tony and Cassandra Kitchens, who were deeply enmeshed in the perilous underworld of drugs and deceit.
This episode crescendos with the gripping account of a massive cartel bust, a coordinated effort that spanned multiple cities and involved hundreds of personnel. The stakes were high, and the toll on mental and physical health was considerable, but the dedication and resilience of law enforcement shine through. By confronting the dangers of cartel operations and the impact on those involved, we emphasize the importance of mental health awareness and self-care. The story captures the personal sacrifices made to ensure community safety, encouraging listeners to reflect on the bravery and commitment required to tackle such perilous cases.
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Welcome back to the Murders to Music podcast. My name is Aaron, I'm your host and you guys are in for a great show this week. Now, in a city where murder has become numbingly routine, there's one case that stands out because of its brutality and its calculated cruelty. Essentially, it was a cartel's calling card on our city. This case was recently adjudicated and everybody was sentenced to prison after a series of pleas. However, this case generated headlines like 5 Sentenced After 2021.
Speaker 1:Execution Style Killing in Gresham. Execution-style killing in Gresham or Portland. Fentanyl dealer with ties to Mexican cartel led the plot to kill a Bend man who had stolen pills. Prosecutors say or suspects in a zip-tied execution-style drug debt killing of a man in Gresham pled guilty. These are the headlines generated by the case you're going to hear about today, and you're going to hear about the toll it took not only on the victim of this case, but on those investigating it.
Speaker 1:Before I get there, I want to share one other thing with you guys. This is an email that I received today from one of the listeners. It goes like this Update I just wanted to let you know your podcast has motivated me to deal with some issues, thank you. I located a trauma-based therapist, former LEO in our area, and had my initial assessment appointment with him this past Monday. Two more appointments are scheduled for some EMDR. I'm about five weeks into a morning workout routine. Nothing crazy, but something On a positive note. My last pending child porn case from over three years ago, a turd suspect, was just sentenced in a plea deal and I didn't have to testify Amen, anyway, thanks again for what you're doing. Have a good one Signed my listener, you know, and that is what this whole podcast is about. It's about bringing reality and maybe helping people see things maybe they didn't see before. And I bring this up because today, the day this is released, is Mental Health Awareness Day. If you find yourself in that position where something has resonated, maybe today's the day to take action. Maybe it's just time to stimulate the parasympathetic side of your nervous system. Maybe do some adult coloring, some yoga, some meditation, listen to some music, go for a walk. Just separate yourself from whatever the hectic hell is that you may be living in.
Speaker 1:Let's get back to the case the cartel case that ultimately was the straw that broke the camel's back and killed my career. Here we go. So on September 24th of 2021, that was a Friday evening, and that Friday evening was like every other Friday evening in our city. There were calls for service, there were crimes, there were different things going on, but shortly after about 10 o'clock PM, we received a 911 call that a body was found in the street in a rural part of our city. Patrol officers responded and here's what they found. They found a person, a white male, laying face down in the ditch. There were zip ties near his body. It appeared that his hands had been zip tied behind his back. Based on the way the body was laying, it looked like he had been placed on his knees, a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, and he fell forward into the ditch for his final place of rest.
Speaker 1:Now, this area is a rural area in our city. It is an industrial area and unless you're a semi-truck backing into one of these industrial buildings to offload, there's a pretty good chance that you're not going to be back there. However, what the killers didn't know is that just about 200 feet away, there was a man parked in the shadows taking his lunch break, and while he told us he didn't see what occurred, he told us he heard the gunshot and then later drove to the location and found the body in the street. He was shook up, he was scared and he did not want to cooperate with the police investigation. So we did not get a lot of information from him. Detectives responded out to the scene and in short order they left the scene. Now I didn't respond that night. I was involved in my own murder at that time and I did not respond to this call-out.
Speaker 1:However, monday morning we're sitting around the office in the war room. The war room is our command center. It's a office, there's large televisions on the wall, there's whiteboards and it is grand central station for our homicide and major crimes investigations. The room is closed off to the public and it's closed off to other police officers. There's signs on the doors that say if you're not involved in this investigation, do not enter. This is the room where decisions are made, details are discussed, confidential information is posted along the walls, videos are watched and cases are solved.
Speaker 1:I was sitting in the war room that morning discussing this case with some of the detectives that went out on it, and let me describe the two detectives that got assigned to this case on the evening of. One of them is a early 30 year old guy who he and I always didn't see eye to eye. I thought he was very arrogant and cocky. He probably thought the same thing about me. The difference is I could back mine up because of my training, experience and knowledge. He couldn't and didn't understand that. I don't feel like he was willing to learn from other people because he knew just about everything. In my opinion and it wasn't my decision, but in my opinion he shouldn't have been investigating homicide cases as a lead because he didn't have the necessary experience. However, he was a good guy, just maybe out over his skis a little bit.
Speaker 1:The other gentleman who was assigned to this case as a lead has been around the detective unit and the police department probably the longest out of anybody else working currently. He's been a detective for many, many years. He's been there, he's seen it, he's done it, but he's a guy that is not real gung-ho to get out, turn over rocks, shake things up and think outside the box. He's a great guy and I love him to death. He will get the job done for you. If you give him a task, you can account on it getting done. However, in leading a case like this is not his strong suit and part of a leader of a homicide investigation or a major crimes team is. You have to understand your parties, your people, their strengths and their weaknesses.
Speaker 1:Now, both of these individuals I'm talking about, in my opinion, had very strong suits that they could lend some things to the detective unit, but I don't believe it was leading a homicide investigation. However, the decision was made by our sergeants to put them in charge. It could have been because they're the only ones that responded and I don't know if that's the case or not. I know that we were overworked and we had a lot of homicides, so I'm not sure who responded that night. Either way, they were placed in charge and come Monday morning were quarterbacking this in the war room.
Speaker 1:In listening to their conversation it was pretty clear that on the night of the homicide there wasn't a whole lot done to further the investigation. There was a very weak attempt at surveillance cameras. There was a weak attempt at some interviews of people in the area and they did not have a whole lot to go on, because you see the victim while face down, zip tied, gunshot to the back of the head. He was missing his wallet, his phone, anything to identify him, his shoes, as he laid there lifeless, so they didn't have a whole lot to go on. He had a tattoo on the small of his back with an arrow pointing downwards towards butt crack that says exit only. They tried running his fingerprints but couldn't come up with anything, couldn't identify him. So that's what we're coming into.
Speaker 1:Monday morning and as the conversation around the table took place, I picked up that and they said well, there's not a whole lot to go on. You know, we might just have to let the lab come back on this until we can identify him and put this thing on pause until we can figure out who he is and then, you know, go from there and see what we can do, but this one might not get solved. What we can do, but this one might not get solved. Well, frankly, that upset me because we don't get to not investigate homicides. It's our job in our profession to go out and turn things over and find evidence, find those people that want to talk, find those cameras. Do more than a half-assed job. We have to do a whole ass job if we're going to be investigating these types of crimes job. We have to do a whole ass job if we're going to be investigating these types of crimes.
Speaker 1:So I asked some questions. They were leading and maybe made some soft suggestions and they weren't really considered or appreciated. And I didn't appreciate the fact that we had a dead guy and he was only getting deader and the leads were only getting more stale. You know, we've all seen the television show first 48 hours and while it is nice to solve them in 48 hours, that doesn't always happen like on TV. But what does happen is during the first 48 hours you investigate it and you create leads. You create things to do and follow-ups that you can investigate and assign to your team. So imagine the root of the tree being your crime scene. Over those first 48 hours that tree stalk will grow and it will blossom out and each one of those leaves is a new lead that somebody can follow up on, which will ultimately hopefully point back towards who's responsible for this heinous crime. Well, in this case we didn't get much past the root system and that bothered me. I went to the sergeants and I said look, based on the conversation, this is not going to get solved. And you got two people on it that, for one reason or another, shouldn't be in my opinion and I want to take this case over and solve it. So I was given the case. Little did I know stepping up, for this case was going to be the last homicide that I investigated.
Speaker 1:Over the next four months. We put together a very solid criminal investigation as to what occurred. That's what I want to talk to you about, because there were some things that happened in this investigation that I had never dealt with before and neither had those in my unit, and that is specifically dealing with the cartel. So here we go. The first thing we do in investigations we got to figure out who this victim is. So we did a victimology on him. We dug into his background, and what that means is we want to know who, where, why, how he sleeps, you know, does he have a flatulence problem? What is it about this victim that makes him unique, and who are his friends, family and ties? So once we dug into that, we realized that he was identified as Andrew Sherrill and he was out of Bend, oregon.
Speaker 1:Andrew Sherrill was out of Bend and he dealt with some pretty seedy people. He is somebody who would deal drugs, some theft, burglaries, just about anything. He lived on the street. You see, at a young age he was given up by his parents and a friend of the family took him in and kind of guided him and over the years Andrew would bounce back and forth out of that house and when he wasn't at the house he would spend time living on the streets making ends meet however he saw fit. But I said that he is from Bend, yet he's dead in Portland. So did they kill him in Bend and dump the body here? Does he have ties to the Portland area?
Speaker 1:And at this point we didn't know that. So myself, my partner and a couple of other detectives all went out to the Bend area and we set up a small substation there with the Bend Police Department. We interviewed everybody on the street. We figured out who his contacts were. We interviewed them and we learned that he dealt with some pretty shady people. We learned that he did have some ties to the Portland area and that's where his plug was. His plug is somebody that supplies him with drugs that he can turn and ties to the Portland area, and that's where his plug was. His plug is somebody that supplies him with drugs that he can turn and sell on the street. So we had to figure out who his plug was, but nobody would really tell us. So we divided and conquered and we had an investigative team working in the Portland area and we had an investigative team working in the Portland area and we had an investigative team working in the Bend area.
Speaker 1:But what you have to understand is this takes time and over this period of time we had four other homicides. So effectively, we have five homicides going at once. What that means is that the detective pool, which is made up of the major crimes team, which is typically detectives from every agency, all come together to investigate. So a fresh homicide comes out. It's mine. The major crimes team is activated. I might have five or 50 detectives at my disposal. I use them as I see fit. We solve the crime, we move on to the next one. But in this case, because there were five total homicides running simultaneously, our pool of detectives was very small. We only had so many resources for so many cases.
Speaker 1:One of the issues that I kept running up against was supervisors having the opinion of hey, this guy's a drug dealer and we don't have a ton of time and energy, so maybe we can move our resources somewhere else. Maybe we can do something for a different victim because we have four others, and you know this. One can go on the back burner and at times I found myself fighting to keep this case open because we don't get to pick our victims. And if you think that we get to pick our victims and that is, one person's life is more important than another person's life, then you're in the wrong business. And the reason you believe that is because you're looking at this from a personnel and a dollars and cents point of view. You're not looking at it from the detective point of view, who is filled and charged with a passion to solve this murder. And I get it. There are two different points of views, but my job is to solve cases. Your job is to provide me resources, and we had those conversations multiple times. Ultimately, we kept this case open and we kept pushing it forward, regardless of the scrutiny and pressure that I was feeling from those above me.
Speaker 1:What we learned is that his plug was a Hispanic person who lived in the Portland area. That's all we knew. We knew that the plug would provide cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and blue pills. Blue pills are fentanyl-based pills. We go back to the police department my police department in Gresham and we get contacted by members of another local police drug task force and they tell us hey, we heard you had this murder and we might have some information for you.
Speaker 1:So, upon listening to what they had to say, they were working a case on a Hispanic gentleman named Cesar Estradinava. Cesar Estradinava was a Hispanic male, had a family in the Portland area. However, he had strong ties to the cartel and they were working him because they thought he was responsible for not only drug dealing but potentially numerous other murders throughout the area Home invasion, robberies, severe ass kickings, etc. And the reason they believed this is because he was the common denominator that kept coming back. Every time they would have a murder or one of these other cases would pop up. So where there's smoke there's fire. He's the common denominator. They were looking at him.
Speaker 1:We learned that at the day of the murder they actually had surveillance cameras on his house, so they were watching him, which meant we could see, maybe, who was coming and going during those hours of the day, both before and after the murder. So we started digging into Cesar Estradanava. We had some phone numbers and then we were able to link our victim, andrew Sherrill, through phone records and through interviews and conversations to Cesar Estradanava and through interviews and conversations to Cesar Estradanava, so it became very clear to us that Andrew Sherrill was working and selling drugs for Estradanava, aka the cartel. So did Estradanava have anything to do with his death? I don't know. So we had to look at it, had to dig into it, had to do the investigation and we had to watch what happened before and after the 911 call reporting the dead body in the street.
Speaker 1:What we saw when we looked at those videos is on the day of the murder we saw a large group of people about seven of them come together at Caesar's house prior to the murder sometime, starting to gather. In the early afternoon they gathered, they went into the house and a couple hours later they came out. They all got into separate vehicles and they left. Some of them were paired up but multiple vehicles left. Then the house lays dormant for several hours and then at about 10.30 pm, about half an hour after that 911 call came in, people started showing back up at the house. 911 call came in, people started showing back up at the house. All the vehicles showed back up and were on the streets, except for one and that was this black SUV. We didn't know much about the black SUV at this point, other than that's the one that didn't stick around the house after the 10.30 pm return.
Speaker 1:Besides just looking at the video evidence that we were provided, we had to go back out and do some interviews and some investigations and talk to some people. Based on some of the conversations that we had had, this is what we learned about Caesar's connection to Andrew Sherrill. You see, caesar thought Andrew Sherrill was an absolute genius. He thought that he was very smart, very smart businessman and he brought Caesar, brought Andrew in to sell some drugs for him. Caesar trusted Andrew. Andrew made Caesar good money to the point where Caesar allowed Andrew to get his hands into the safe and into the money. Well, andrew Andrew apparently never saw the show Breaking Bad or the Ozarks, because this is where he started making really poor decisions. You see, he took a large quantity of drugs from the cartel.
Speaker 1:The way the cartel works there's a cartel in Mexico. They have a main contact here in the United States. In this case it was Cesar Estradinava. Cesar Estradinava has the cartel's drugs. He hasn't paid for them. They're loaned to him so he can sell them and return the money. Cesar Estradinava uses people like Andrew Sherrill and others to go out and peddle his drugs at a street level and return the proceeds back to him, and in turn, caesar will give the proceeds back to the cartel Should things not go the way as planned.
Speaker 1:Caesar has big muscle in the guys called shot callers, who will go out and enforce the rules of the game. If that means beating somebody up, that's what they do. Threats of violence, threats of harm to other people's family members or maybe even murder, then that is what they do. Home invasion, robberies, that's what they do. They go back and they collect the debts owed to the cartel. You see, that is one of the things that other police department was looking at. The common denominator were Caesar and his shock collars. That's how we got to this point in the investigation.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that we learned is Caesar Stradinova has a list. That list has people on it who owe him money and, as luck would have it, Andrew Sherrill was on that list. In our profession we call this a clue. It's motive, it's a reason why somebody might want to cause harm to Andrew Sherrill. Now what will happen with that list? He will either collect or he'll have others collect for him.
Speaker 1:But remember, andrew Sherrill lived in Bend and essentially was on the run after stealing from the cartel ie, cesar Stradinava. So therefore he couldn't be found easily. So Caesar had to employ people to go out and help find him and find him, find Andrew Sherrill. So that's exactly what occurred. So we started looking at some of these players that we saw coming and going from the house and, as luck would have it, we were able to identify a lot of them. Based on cell phone records, based on video cameras, based on conversations that were had with witnesses, we were able to identify who these people were. And then we started looking into what their actions were after they left the house that night, based on cell phone records, and we found that they ended up in downtown Portland, in the Lloyd district.
Speaker 1:Now that ring a bell for us, because when we were in Bend, we learned that our victim, andrew Sherrill, caught a ride with one of his friends, a guy named Tony, into the Portland area and they were staying at a hotel in the Lloyd district. So when we talked to Tony, Tony was a unique individual and a dangerous man. My partner and I spoke to him and Tony liked us. He tried challenging me right away and I stood up to him and he got over that and liked us. But during the conversation Tony was one of those people that just made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. He would look through your soul, not into your eyes, and he clearly told us during the interview that he's a drug dealer. He sells drugs, he moves them up and down the corridors and if he was on the side of the road with a police officer and he had a load of drugs, he would have no hesitation in killing that police officer to keep him from going to jail on the drug charges. That is the type of person that gave Andrew Sherrill a ride to Portland.
Speaker 1:So we had to either include or exclude Tony as a potential suspect in this case and at the end of the day we excluded him as a suspect and he was just simply a ride across the mountain range over to Portland. So we had to determine why Andrew wanted to come over to Portland and in his phone records and his other text messaging apps it was pretty clear that he was going to meet with a girl named Cassandra Kitchens. Now Cassandra Kitchens is a cute little blonde tweaker who I first dealt with about 10 years ago on a bad check case. So I know her well and Cassandra Kitchens had been communicating with Andrew Sherrill about some romantic interests. And when I say romantic interests I'm talking about maybe soft music, dancing under the moonlight, maybe long walks on the beach, maybe sensual massages. No, they want to get together, have sex and do dope together. That's what they're going to do, right?
Speaker 1:So we are able to identify that Cassandra Kitchens is one of the people involved in the meeting at Cesar Estrada Nova's house. So now all the pieces are starting to come together. Cesar has a list with some debts on it. Kitchens is a associate of Cesar's. Kitchens is a romantic interest with a vagina that is willing to do a Venus flytrap on Andrew Sherrill if needed. Kitchens, who's also in debt to Estrada Nava, agrees to lure Andrew Sherrill in for her debt to be paid off. So that's exactly what she does. She sends the messages across the mountain range. Andrew Sherrill does whatever he can, gets off the couch that he's flopping on, gets into a car with Tony, drives across the mountain and everybody agrees to meet in the Lloyd district. That is where Tony's going to bring Andrew and that is where Cassandra Kitchens is going to meet Andrew From there.
Speaker 1:Investigation shows that at about 845 at night, nine o'clock at night, andrew Sherrill leaves the hotel where he was with Tony. Tony says he went to meet somebody but didn't know who and just never came back. And the video cameras show him walking across the street to a Denny's parking lot and at Denny's he meets with a black SUV. A blonde girl gets out of the black SUV, greets him and they get back into the SUV together and the SUV pulls away westbound. So here's what we learned.
Speaker 1:Based on our investigation, we learned that SUV was driven by Cassandra Kitchens. Cassandra Kitchens picked Andrew up at the Denny's and drove him just a short block to the McDonald's. At the McDonald's she got out of the car and asked him to get out of the car so she could give him a hug or smoke a cigarette, whatever her excuse was car, so she could give him a hug or smoke a cigarette, whatever her excuse was. But what Andrew Sherrill didn't know is that is where he was going to meet Estrada Nava, a gentleman named Black, who's Estrada Nava's muscle and shot caller, and some other kids who Estrada Nava had hired to be muscle and an enforcement team. When they got, when Andrew and Cassandra got out of the car with guns drawn. Cesar Stradivari and Black confront him, stick a gun in his side and force him back into the backseat of that SUV. This is where the kidnapping occurred. From there, cassandra gets back into the driver's seat and, as complicit as can be, drives them around the corner and parks in front of a local, les Schwab. At the Les Schwab, everybody gets out of the SUV and they continue to beat Andrew Sherrill. They zip tie his hands, they zip tie his feet, hands behind his back and they throw him into the back of that SUV. And a new kid gets into the driver's seat, a young man, and they drive away Between the Lloyd district and the remote part of my city.
Speaker 1:An ass kicking occurred and Andrew Sherrill had to know that his days were numbered. Everybody else ended up making their way back to Estrada Nava's house where they were going to meet after the fact. And Black Estrada Nava, this male driver, and Andrew Sherrill made their way out to remote Gresham, remote Gresham. They got Andrew out. They were in an area. They thought nobody was there. They thought nobody would find the body Between Black and Estrada Nova. They got him out, they put Andrew Sherrill on his knees and they shot him one time in the back of the head Again. Had our victim ever watched Breaking Bad or the Ozarks, he would have known. It's literally written in the plot how this was going to end for him, thinking they had got away with the ultimate crime.
Speaker 1:The two get back into the SUV and they make their way back to Estrada Navas' house. What they didn't know is our investigation was going to go through and watch traffic cameras all along the route and we were going to pinpoint and track their vehicle at every single intersection between the murder scene and Estrada Nova's house. Once they get back to Estrada Nova's house, they didn't know that there were hidden cameras watching the house so they could record who was coming and going. You see, that black SUV showed up, dropped them off and has never been seen again. That there we, being the police, that there was a ring spotlight camera over the garage door which we wrote a search warrant for and ultimately obtained all of the video evidence of people coming and going and walking underneath that ring camera.
Speaker 1:What we didn't know we were going to get was the audio. You see it recorded everything that happened underneath that camera. We heard their conversations. We saw Caesar pull the gun out of his pants after the murder and kind of flag it around and wave it around the high-fiving, the cheering, kind of like they'd won a sports game. Except somebody lost their life.
Speaker 1:It was a cold, calculated murder and these guys, in their infinite wisdom, literally wiretapped themselves. A wiretap is a device that we can use to monitor, listen to all incoming outgoing calls, sometimes monitor internet and just literally put the big brother eye on a criminal situation. Now, a wiretap is a very invasive process and it takes a great deal of probable cause to get to that stage. But these people literally wiretap themselves by standing underneath their own camera to plan, talk about the execution of and then come back and discuss the aftermath of this murder. So our investigation clearly shows all of this. We were able to pull video from the beginning and we were able to see everybody get into place Cassandra arriving at Denny's, the rest of the posse and gang arriving over near Les Schwab, the McDonald's people, the lookouts arriving over near Les Schwab, the McDonald's people, the lookouts, all of the co-conspirators of this murder were able to put all of them in place with video surveillance and cell phone records Once the murder had been completed and everybody departed from Cesar Estrada Navas house that night.
Speaker 1:They went off into the wind. We were able to contact Cassandra Kitchens and I interviewed her. I interviewed her for hours and she gave some incriminating statements as to her involvement in this murder. I was ready to arrest her. I was told by our DA that we weren't going to be arresting her that night. This DA did not know the case and he and I got into an arguing match, yelling match in our war room over if we let her go, she's got the keys to the castle, she knows our investigation and we're screwed. Plus, she's made incriminating statements and her vagina was the lure.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're still having a hard time putting this together, let's pretend you're a little bass and you're under the water and you're looking up and there is that big juicy frog. What you don't know is that there is a barb of death underneath that frog's ass. But you're hungry. Andrew was hungry. He wanted the Venus flytrap, he wanted the drugs that she was going to provide. So, just like that bass, andrew reached out for Cassandra. That bass goes up and grabs that frog and before you know it, there's a hook in its mouth and its ass is out of the water and it's dancing on top of the water and then it finds itself in a cooler. No different than what happened with Andrew Sherrill. He reached out, he took the bait.
Speaker 1:The person responsible for this entire orchestrated murder is Cassandra Kitchens. She's in my custody and I'm getting told I have to let her go. I was pissed but I let her go. And wouldn't you know? She fled and we found her six, eight months later. I got into a vehicle pursuit with her, risked innocent people's lives to try to take her into custody and risk the police officer's lives. And then she was taken into custody six months later. But before she was her into custody and risk the police officer's lives. And then she was taken into custody six months later. But before she was taken into custody, on December 13th of 2021, it was a night that I will never forget.
Speaker 1:On that night, we were able to serve four simultaneous search warrants between the cities of Beaverton, vancouver and Portland. We employed a lot of people that night to help. You see, it was time to take everybody into custody. So we wrote search warrants for each of the locations and we also had teams of detectives and officers that were divided up for each location. Each location not only had a search warrant but we needed detective search teams. We needed evidence collection people. We needed scene security. We needed SWAT teams to serve the warrants and blow the front doors off and take people into custody. We need quick response teams. We needed medical teams on standby in case somebody got hurt. This was a huge undertaking.
Speaker 1:That night that I held the briefing, we had about 200 to 250 police officers, federal agencies, local state agencies, swat team members, detectives, medical staff, supervisors everybody in the room when I held the briefing that night. Everybody is aware this is a cartel murder. Everybody is aware of the risks and everybody is willing to step up and take on their duties and responsibilities. After the briefing that lasted about an hour with all of the maps and scene maps, I retired to the war room and everybody else went out on the street and the surveillance teams conducted their surveillance. We did follows of the suspects who were out rolling around.
Speaker 1:At about 5 30 am, all the suspects had made it back to their houses and at that time we blew the front door off of four different locations. Those warrants were served within about 30 seconds of each other, so nobody had time to call anybody and we took four of the five people into custody. Those people were taken in for interviews. Some of them spoke, some of them didn't. However, we were able to close up our case. The one that was on the run was Cassandra Kitchens, and we were able to find her a couple of months later. Here's who we met that night Cesar Estradinava, deshaun Baker, also known as Black. He was the muscle. Sean is an absolute, ruthless, cold-blooded killer Cassandra Kitchens, andrew Bushnell and CJ Wabi. Everything I'm telling you is public record. So we met them, we interviewed them that night. Except for Cassandra, they all went off to jail. We were able to collect guns, drugs, evidence directly related to this murder, and we were able to solidify our case that evening. So then we go through the court process, and that was on December 13th.
Speaker 1:In January, mid-january is when I got into a fight at work doing some training, broke three ribs and ultimately went to the doctor with three broken ribs and my blood pressure was through the roof, and they asked what was wrong and what's been going on. So I told them about my whole history. You see, during the months of September to January I had five days off total. Many of those weeks I was working or those two week periods. I was working 300 hours total in two weeks. That means that each week there's 168 hours. In a week I was working 150. So for about four months straight I was averaging about 18 hours off per week. You see, that increased my stress and it increased my, decreased my mental health and that is ultimately the straw that broke this camel's back. The other thing is I was getting followed home. I was getting followed home by unknown members, unknown people, members of the cartel and I was getting followed around. I changed all the locks on my house. I placed guns all over the place. I met with my family and gave them an emergency plan that, if shit were to go down, this is what you need to do. It was a very. It's the only time in my career that I have been scared of my work following me home, which it literally did. You see, my wife and I.
Speaker 1:After I came out of law enforcement and was on my medical leave, my wife and I were in our small town and this Mexican guy shows up. He's dressed in black from head to toe. He is a Hispanic male, about 60 years old, greasy hair, always wearing the same black outfit, except for his little ostrich belt and his matching ostrich boots. He drove his black Corvette and he just was everywhere we seem to be. If we were at the local bar, he was there. If we were out for coffee, he was there. If we were walking down the street, he was driving by, to the point where after about the sixth or seventh time I saw him, I actually talked to him at our little local tap house and small talk. I'm like, hey, what are you doing? He's like I'm from Hillsboro and I just wanted to come over here because I like hanging out in cameras, I like the way the streets look. Well, he's full of crap. Hillsboro is about 40 miles away and about an hour and 15 hour and 20 minutes. Nobody drives that distance to just come hang out. So with that I knew he was full of shit. And the thing that really pushed it over the top for me is on a random Tuesday morning my wife and I decided to take our kids to play Topgolf in Hillsborough. It's 10 o'clock in the morning, we're at Topgolf, the place is empty and shortly after we arrive, guess who arrives at Topgolf and gets the lane next to us? This guy. So I can't prove that he is a cartel member following me, but it's highly suspicious. All of that is the straw that broke the camel's back At the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Here's what we received for this investigation Cesar Estrada Nava, pled guilty to 20 years. Deshaun Baker Black 20 years. Who is the trigger man, you might ask? I think I know I can't prove it. It's one of those two Cassandra Kitchens 115 months. Andrew Bushnell he was a kid who was just hired for muscle being an enforcement, being a part of the conspiracy 100 months. All in all, he was a decent kid that got mixed up in the wrong crowd. Cj Wabi another decent kid, just wrong crowd, wrong time 90 months.
Speaker 1:We were assisted by lots of other people in this investigation Task Force, clackamas County Sheriff's Office, fbi, swat, dea, dea, swat, northwest Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, southwest Washington SWAT, east Metro SWAT, east County Major Crimes Team, multnomah County District Attorney's Office and the Gresham Police Department Patrol Division and the Gresham Police Department Patrol Division. Without all of these people's participation and without the tenacity and the courage for all these officers to go out there, work, relentless work around the clock, 30 hours straight, sometimes 35 hours straight, having 18 hours off per week as an average for about four months, limiting your days off. Four days off and five days off in four months. All of this dedication is what your homicide detectives are doing out there today. You don't know it. You don't understand it. You don't understand what it takes to solve these cases. People don't understand the dangers that these detectives put themselves in to solve these cases. We see the headlines on the news and we think that well, maybe we see the headlines like Sinaloa drug cartel tied to murder in Oregon, over $90,000 drug debt, and we're like, yeah, it's not going to happen in our town. Multi-agency investigation leads to guilty pleas for five cartel members. Cartel flooded an Oregon coastal town with drugs, left a grisly warning for those who might talk. Maybe we see these and we don't actually understand what it takes to investigate them.
Speaker 1:I told you the story today one because it's a cartel story and it's the one that literally the cartel case that killed my career. It's the straw that broke the camel's back. I led the investigation, I steered the ship. I fought to keep it alive and upright while others were trying to tear it down, but at the end of the four months it took a huge team effort to rock this case. My mental health was severely affected by this case, both with fear for myself, my family, but just the stress and the exhaustion that I put myself in. Those are my faults, not their faults. Either way, you guys don't do it. No matter what your career is, the job doesn't love you as much as you love it. Do what's right, take care of yourself, take care of your people, love those around you. And, ladies and gentlemen, that is the Murders to Music podcast.
