South Hayward gang members take plea deals in ‘Operation Winter Storm’ case

HAYWARD — Four men accused of various violent crimes to benefit their South Hayward-based gang have accepted plea deals and prison terms ranging from seven to 17 years and eight months, court records show.

On Dec. 15, Hayward resident Dezmon Wren, 26, pleaded no contest to attempted murder and accessory charges for an agreed-upon sentence of 17 years and eight months in prison. His conviction marked the latest adjudication in a five-count criminal case that resulted from a 2017 police wiretap investigation dubbed Operation Winter Storm.

Wren’s co-defendants Robert Navarro, Jeswal Prakash, and Roger Castelan have all accepted plea deals ranging from seven to 11 years in state prison. They were all accused of plotting to commit violent crimes, including shootings, against rivals.

The gang at the center of the case is known as East Las Palmas gang, or ELP, a subset of the Norteños based in South Hayward. The investigation was prompted by a string of gang shootings and homicides, and resulted in several criminal cases, including multiple alleged gang conspiracies.

The plots included an alleged conspiracy to shoot a man nicknamed “80-Deuce” who had allegedly shot co-defendant Humberto Villegas in the hand, as well as allegations that three separate attempts were made to kill the new boyfriend of Navarro’s child’s mother.

Other ELP members, including Villegas, Michael Porter, and Matthew “Yung Mickey” Munoz, were charged with conspiring in a plot to murder a rival gang member who rapped under the moniker Lil’ Slugg.

None of the alleged murder plots actually came to fruition; the victims either weren’t killed or police stopped the violence from happening, thanks to the wiretap operation, according to prosecutors.

Munoz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison earlier this year, after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to commit first degree murder in the plot to kill Lil’ Slugg, court records show.