Criminal Defense Attorney Lou Shapiro tells CBSLA that while it's rare for the federal government to pick up state crime on a local level, Sheriff Villanueva likely went to the feds in order to get the stiffest sentences possible
, and the woman arrested is an associate and the girlfriend of one of the men.
In the complaint, Haylee Grisham, the girlfriend, is quoted as saying 22-year-old Ernesto Cisneros pointed the gun at the officer and ordered him to “give him the chains.” She said she heard several gunshots and saw Rios run back to the car. “We definitely had conversations with the local DA’s and their response was not satisfactory. Their plan was just to prosecute a simple murder with no gun enhancements, no gang enhancements, nothing,” Villanueva said at the conference. “That did not really cover the depravity of this crime.
Another criminal defense attorney Alexandra Kazarian said that the legal etiquette would be to give the case to both local and federal prosecutors while also giving insight into Gascón’s policies.