Gangster whose gang moved on: ‘Having a gun I felt protected’

“Me and mine before you and yours.”

That motto is inked on Paul Esparza’s chest next to a smoking shotgun.

Thing is, Esparza, who helped found a Seattle street gang, doesn’t have many of “his” left. At least not those who ran with the Sureno set they formed a decade ago.

Some have gone straight. Others are dead or in prison. At 24, Esparza was a struggling father and landscaper living with his grandparents in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood. Not very gangster.

But he had guns – a decidedly gangster Tec-9 on one occasion – and now he is headed to federal prison.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour sentenced Esparza to a four-year prison term for unlawful gun possession. Esparza, a convicted felon prohibited from possessing firearms, was caught with a gun at a gas station in South Park and, separately, near West Seattle’s Alki Beach.

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Esparza’s latest conviction caps what has so far been a life of crime.

Settling in South Park as a teen, Esparza and his friends formed a small street gang. They christened themselves the Sureno Villains 13, adopted the blue bandanas and other accoutrements of Sureno gang life, and started making trouble.

The gang appears to have reached its zenith in the late 2000s during a regional spike in youth gang activity. Esparza received his first significant prison sentence – 2 ½ years – in 2009 after he and two other gang members held up a convenience store. Esparza was 16.

The same year, another group of Sureno Villains were caught after a drive-by shooting targeting members of a rival street gang. That shooting saw an 18-year-old young man injured.

Writing the court, Assistant Federal Public Defender Corey Endo said the Sureno Villains “slowed down and ultimately stopped operating as a gang” in the years after Esparza was released from juvenile detention.

“Some people moved from the area. Some people were killed,” Endo said in court papers. “And some simply grew up and stopped getting in trouble.”

Esparza wasn’t one of them.

Prosecutors contend Esparza is still involved in gang activity and describe him as a “known member” of the Sureno Villain set. He has accrued a series of theft-related convictions in recent years and been convicted of domestic violence crimes.

While Esparza denies current gang membership, violence follows him. Endo said his client armed himself in part because of the “unnerving violence in his community.”

His grandparents’ home was shot up while he and they slept inside. One of the young men he was arrested with last March has been killed; Endo said that man’s killer later killed himself.

The most recent tragedy close to Esparza claimed his teenage cousin, Dallas Esparza. The 16-year-old was shot in the head on Feb. 7 on a South Park street and died five days later at a Seattle hospital. No arrests have been made in the death, which was has been determined to be a homicide.

Prohibited from possessing firearms due to his criminal convictions, Esparza was caught with a pistol in January 2017 by detectives investigating a series of drive-by shootings in South Park. Esparza was stopped in a gas station there; detectives saw a 9mm pistol resting on the center console of his vehicle.

Two months later, Esparza was again caught with a gun at Hamilton Viewpoint Park near West Seattle’s Alki Beach. Police were in the area because of a report of men with guns in a car.

That time it was a stolen Tec-9 pistol stowed under Esparza’s seat that drew police attention. A loaded extended capacity magazine was seated in the pistol. Police also found a loose round of ammunition under the seat that did not match the caliber of the pistol.

“As a prohibited person, Esparza would not carry a stolen Tec-9 firearm loaded with an extended capacity magazine unless he expected to use it,” Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Manca said in court papers.

“Esparza carried firearms—outside his neighborhood and away from his residence—because he anticipated being involved in gun violence wherever he went,” the prosecutor continued.

Arrested but released on bond, Esparza was jailed again two weeks later after police say he illegally entered a marijuana grow house. He has been jailed since.

Writing the court, Manca noted Esparza has two tattoos depicting guns. One on his right shoulder depicts a masked gunman; a second is on his left arm.

Esparza apologized to the community and his family for his crimes.

Esparza has no mental health issues or drug addiction. Though violence marred his childhood, he has an intact extended family that has supported him through his successive run-ins with the law.

In a letter to Judge Coughenour, Esparza said he armed himself because a gun provided him with a sense of security following a shooting at his home.

“I was shook up and scared, so to me having a gun I felt protected, Esparza said. “I really wasn’t thinking right but now that I see the bigger picture, it was a really dumb idea and I regret it. … I never want to put myself or my family through this again.”

Beyond the prison term, Coughenour sentenced Esparza to three years of court supervision following his release from prison. He remains jailed.

SeattlePI senior editor Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at @levipulk. Find more from Levi here on his author page.