rooms, but no one was evacuated from the hotel. During the Reagan’s speech, someone had cut the wires of the microphone with the intent to completely disrupt his speech. After the Biltmore incident, ten Chicanos were indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury.
These individuals were indicted by a key witness for the
prosecution, Fernando Sumaya. Sumaya was with the Los Angeles Police Department who had infiltrated the Brown Berets since 1968 and was present during the Biltmore incident (Chavez 2002). Fernando Sumaya’s role in the Biltmore fires was described by Carlos Montes (Interview with Author 2006), You know, what Fernando Sumaya did was he went into the bathroom and set fires in the bathroom. And there were fires in the hotel and the issue that came out in trial was how could we have done it, you know, because we didn’t have access to the upper floors. They were all secured by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and State Police… So, what they did at the hotel, was a classic agent provocateur. Eventually, four people had the charges dropped, leaving six to be charged.
The
individuals were charged with conspiracy to commit “arson, burning personal property, burglary, and malicious destruction of electrical lines” (Lopez 2003: 36). Brown Beret members Carlos Montes and Ralph Ramirez, as well as United Mexican-American Students (UMAS) leader Moctezuma Esparza, were indicted for conspiracy charges. However, Carlos Montes, Brown Beret Minister of Information, feared for his life and went into hiding and left the country before completion of the trial. Ultimately, five persons faced court trials for the Biltmore incident (Montes Interview with Author 2006). The defendants would face life imprisonment if convicted. Again, attorney Oscar Z. Acosta represented the Biltmore Six in the trial. He attempts to use the judicial discrimination strategy as in the East L.A. Thirteen case. Only this time, it was much more difficult because both the state’s star witness, Fernando
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