A mystery has lingered for the 15 years since Hermilio Franco, a small-time actor and nightclub owner, was gunned down in the bedroom of his Downey home.
On Nov. 3, 2010, Franco pulled a chrome-plated .45 from under his pillow and opened fire on two armed intruders. The shootout left Franco dead and one of his attackers paralyzed. The other slipped out a back door, apparently never identified.
But at a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, it was revealed that Downey police were told the name of the man who got away as far back as 2014.
In exchange for a reduced sentence, the paralyzed intruder told authorities his accomplice was Manuel Quintero, an alleged Mexican Mafia member nicknamed “Snuffy,” a retired detective testified. According to the detective, the cooperator identified Quintero by his legal name, nickname and birth date — even describing a distinctive tribal band tattoo on his arm.
The mystery now, it seems, is why authorities did not act on the man’s sworn statement until July of this year, when Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Quintero with Franco’s murder. Representatives for the Downey Police Department and the L.A. County district attorney’s office did not return requests for comment.
Manuel Quintero has pleaded not guilty to the charge that he murdered Hermilio Franco.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Quintero, 49, has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer told The Times that no credible evidence links him to the homicide. His lawyers have denied that he is involved in organized crime. In court papers, they describe him as a devoted father of two and an entrepreneur who owns a trucking company, manages a restaurant and donates time and money to charity.
But the testimony at Wednesday’s hearing painted a darker portrait. His alleged accomplice told police that Quintero wanted to zip-tie Franco’s family before robbing him as payback for a drug deal gone wrong.
Franco owned a popular Lynwood nightclub, El Farallon, which hosted the legendary singer Chalino Sanchez and other artists who sang ballads about the Mexican drug trade.
Quintero, dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit and bright white sneakers, listened as the retired detective, Robert Del Rio, explained the paralyzed intruder’s plea deal. In exchange for a sentence of 25 years to life, he admitted to murdering Franco and revealed all he knew about the crime under oath.
Del Rio identified the man only by his initials, L.T.
Court records show that Larry Trujillo was convicted of Franco’s murder and released from prison in 2023 after a judge found him “permanently incapacitated.”
Larry Trujillo, photographed after his arrest in 2010, was paralyzed in an attempt to rob Hermilio Franco.
(Los Angeles County Superior Court)
According to Del Rio, the cooperator said he’d met Quintero through a “prison contact.” Quintero has served state prison terms for assault, car theft, possessing guns, manufacturing drugs and false imprisonment.
Quintero told the informant that Franco had ripped him off in a drug deal for $80,000, Del Rio testified. He knew Franco kept a lot of cash in the house because he’d once dated the man’s daughter, the detective said. Franco’s daughter has denied to The Times that she was romantically involved with Quintero.
Using a rented minivan, Quintero and the cooperator conducted six “recon” missions in Franco’s neighborhood, Del Rio testified. The day before the crime, they bought screwdrivers, duct tape, zip ties and a laser sight, which the informant taped onto a semi-automatic handgun. He told police that Quintero was carrying a .357 revolver and a taser.
They parked the minivan in the block behind Franco’s home. The informant wore a Detroit Tigers hat; Quintero a black ski mask. They scaled fences and crept through yards, using the palm trees on Franco’s property as a guide. The cooperator said they were “prepared with peanut butter” when they encountered a small chihuahua, Del Rio testified.
In scrambling over Franco’s back fence, the two triggered a motion sensor light. As they hid in the shadows on the side of the house, the informant recalled to police, he heard the sounds of people breathing inside. He noticed Quintero appeared “extremely nervous,” Del Rio testified.
According to the informant, Quintero knew Franco kept two .45s in the house.
They crept through an unlocked back door. The informant said Quintero waved him to the master bedroom, where Franco slept face down beside his wife. Quintero pressed a taser to the back of Franco’s neck, the cooperator told police.
Hermilio Franco slept with this gun beneath his pillow.
(Los Angeles County Superior Court)
Franco pulled his .45 and opened fire. Shot in the neck and unable to move, the informant said Franco fired at the fleeing Quintero, who grabbed his side.
Franco’s wife retrieved a shotgun from a closet. The informant knew he was paralyzed, he told authorities. He asked the woman to kill him as she ran out of the room.
At a hospital in Downey, the cooperator told police, he spoke by phone to Quintero. He’d fled to Tijuana, where he underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to his abdomen, according to the informant.
At the time, Quintero was wanted for jumping bail on a drug case in Orange County. The company that posted his $215,000 bond hired a private investigator who tracked down a girlfriend of Quintero’s in 2011, a company lawyer wrote in court papers. The woman said Quintero was living in Guadalajara.
Arrested in Tijuana in 2012, Quintero served less than two years in prison for manufacturing methamphetamine and falsely imprisoning a woman. He was released the same year the informant implicated him in Franco’s killing.
Quintero’s preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue Oct. 14.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
