| Esteban | |
|---|---|
| |
| Education: | U.C. Santa Barbara |
| Profession: | student |
| Played by: | Jeremy Ray Valdez |
| Season(s): | 3 |
| Appears in: | "Blood and Water" |
Esteban was Raymond Montes' best friend.
Before Season 3[]
Esteban and Raymond Montes were best friends since high school. When Esteban started being bullied at school, Raymond protected him. Although Raymond was a member of the Byz Lats gang, he wouldn't let Esteban join. Eventually, Esteban graduated Cum Laude and received the National Merit Award.
After high school, Esteban enrolled on U.C. Santa Barbara. After one semester, though, he didn't re-enroll and returned to Los Angeles. One day, Esteban approached Garza without telling Raymond and asked to join the Byz Lats. As a way of initiation, Garza asked Esteban to kill Calva, a former Byz Lat that had joined the Torrucos. Garza then gave Esteban a map to find Calva, and an MP5.
Season 3[]
Esteban found Calva's car in an alley in 1949 Coronado. Standing from a balcony, he shot at his car repeatedly with the MP5 that Garza gave him. After he finished, he went down to check out the car but was surprised to find that his friend Raymond was also in the car. Shortly after, Officers Julien Lowe and Tommy Hisk arrived and found Esteban soaked in blood and crying in the curb. After he was treated by an EMT, he was taken to the Barn for questioning.
Detectives Claudette Wyms and Dutch Wagenbach interviewed him and Esteban claimed that he was in the backseat at the time of the shooting. Dutch was surprised to see an honor student like him hanging on with gangs, but Esteban claimed that Raymond was not a loser and that he was his friend. Knowing that Garza might have something to do with the shooting, Dutch and Claudette asked Esteban to look at a line-up to see if he identified him. However, Esteban didn't.
After Dutch and Claudette returned from the crime scene, Dutch went to interrogate Esteban again. As he started asking questions about the night of the murders, Esteban eventually accepted that he had murdered Raymond and Calva. As Dutch asked him, Esteban told him that Garza had given him the gun and the map to find Calva. Esteban was then put into the cage at the Barn.