San Bernardino Rappers Death

02:37 PM PST on Sunday, January 18, 2009

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

A raucous kind of reverence filled Ray's Downtown Deli.

Even before the night's first song, the floor shook in a way no bass beat could cause. Some inside the San Bernardino bar called Jan. 8's earthquake a sign.

Had Robert Mastrangelo, the rapper memorialized with a concert seven months after being slain, acknowledged his fervent following?

"This is about what we can't get back," Joseph Alonzo, a collaborator known as J.O.E., later told the crowd. "We gotta get a moment of silence, a 16-bar count."

Heads bowed among the people dressed in T-shirts and tank tops with Mastrangelo's face on them.

For the first time in a case of deception, drugs and torture in the underground hip-hop world -- one copied from a Hollywood film -- all was quiet.
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Robert Mastrangelo, aka "Self Sufficient," had completed an album with a collaborator titled "Dedicated to the Struggle, Vol. 1."

The 24-year-old San Bernardino resident was found June 14 in a drainage ditch just off Interstate 15 in Barstow. Clothed only in his underwear, he had been bound at the ankles, beaten and shot several times.

Dudzai Prosper Pswatai, a 21-year-old Riverside auto-parts driver who admitted helping tie up the victim, was arrested in July. Celina Sanchez, a 20-year-old fast-food worker accused of lending her Pedley garage and car for the crime, was jailed in December.

As the investigation intensified, so did the interest from Mastrangelo's large network of friends, family and fellow rappers, stretching from Long Beach to Kansas. They cemented crosses at the spot he was killed, have driven hundreds of miles to the High Desert for court hearings, and flood online forums anywhere a mention of the case is found.

Suspect at Large

What has pushed them most is one missing piece. Jeffrey "Slutter" Berrouet, a one-time Riverside substitute teacher and the alleged mastermind behind the killing, is still on the run.

"He had his Christmas, he had his New Year's," Catherine Mastrangelo, the victim's cousin, said of Berrouet. "We didn't have all that."
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Paul Alvarez / The Press-Enterprise
Rappers and friends of Robert Mastrangelo, 24, a rapper who was slain in June, memorialize Mastrangelo at a concert at Ray's Downtown Deli in San Bernardino. Mastrangelo had a large network of friends, family and fellow rappers stretching from Long Beach to Kansas.

Berrouet, 23, is charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery, but his last known sighting was in late June.

On the night that Mastrangelo's loved ones gathered for the rap concert, the television show "America's Most Wanted" was on hand to film a segment.

Detectives say Berrouet met the victim near a Burger King in Redlands on June 11, purportedly for a $2,000 ecstasy sale. The two knew each other through mutual friends in the hip-hop circuit, and the day before, had set up the deal after Berrouet was caught selling the victim's friend fake drugs -- Skittles candy -- for $900.

What happened over the next three days is described in court documents as the result of a pop-culture-influenced drive for money. Mastrangelo was taken to a garage in Pedley, witnesses told police, where his legs were bound with a bathrobe belt and he was kicked in the head.

At the drainage ditch 80 miles away, he was shot four times in the head and twice in the chest. A jogger found him June 14 as the intense desert heat had already started decomposition.

Sanchez told detectives that Pswatai, known as "Baby IQ," and Berrouet had come to her house the day before Mastrangelo disappeared, talking about "somebody doing them wrong and ... doing something like 'Alpha Dog,' " according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
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Dudzai Prosper Pswatai, 21, left, and Celina Sanchez, 20.

In the 2006 Justin Timberlake film of the same name, a group of drug dealers kidnap a teen, treat him like a friend for several days but ultimately execute him in a remote area.

"The big difference is that the guy in the movie was treated well," said Barstow police Detective Keith Libby. "In this case, Mastrangelo was beaten and probably tortured."

'Greed for Money'

Veronica Murillo gave birth to Berrouet's child weeks after the killing. The 20-year-old Riverside resident said she watched her ex-boyfriend change from a motivated substitute teacher to a drug dealer with ties to a Riverside street gang.

Berrouet likely would have wanted to rob Mastrangelo, Murillo said, but she thought he was not capable of killing anyone. Her mother then interjected.

"I think it was really his greed for money taken too far," said Ana Murillo.

Some of Mastrangelo's family said they do not believe he was a drug dealer, while others told Libby that he and his friends had gotten into selling ecstasy through rave parties.

Either way, it was music that got Mastrangelo up each morning, they said. Known as "Self Sufficient," the rapper had just completed an album with Alonzo, "Dedicated to the Struggle, Vol. 1."

Lyrics influenced by the street life are spoken over samples that range from jazz to funk.

"My brother had a lot of angles to his life, he kept a lot of things to himself," said Amanda Fuquay, 28.

"But he had a pen and paper in his hand all the time and his music just came to him."

As a teen in Redlands and Yucaipa, Mastrangelo became immersed in the skateboarding culture, and eventually, writing songs reflecting the "thug life" he saw in his native Long Beach.

Alonzo, 26, said his collaborator was "relentless," bounding up his stairs each morning with his own recording equipment and the desire to spend the entire day testing songs.

"A lot of people didn't have that way to wake up the next day," he said as he prepared for the memorial concert, wearing a white T-shirt that read "R.I.P. Self Sufficient."

"He had the passion."

Reach Paul LaRocco at 951-368-9468 or plarocco@PE.com

AT LARGE
Jeffrey Berrouet

Barstow police are searching for Jeffrey Berrouet in last year's killing of a San Bernardino rapper:

Age: 23

Last known residences: Riverside, Pedley, San Bernardino

Description: 5 feet, 6 inches, 150 pounds, tattoos on both arms

AKAs: "Slutter," "Gutta"

Affiliation: "Maniac Mob" Crips gang in Riverside

Charged: with murder, kidnapping and second-degree robbery of Robert Mastrangelo on June 11, 2008

Tips: Call Barstow police Detective Keith Libby at 760-255-5134 or We-Tip: 1-800-782-7463

Found this somewhat interesting. At the bottom it talks about the suspect "At Large". Says he is affiliated with something called Maniac Mob, a Riverside Crip gang. Has anyone heard of them?

Never heard of Maniac Mob. Good find though homie.

This is old, this happened in barstow.

Yeah, this happened early summer of 2008. There was just an article about it today in the Press. And also this article mentions possible gang activity, also mentions a gang I've never heard of. So I thought I'd post it, get some comments.