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An Alexandria jury last week found the men guilty of killing 17-year-old Edvin Escobar Mendez and 14-year-old Sergio Anthony Arita Triminio, the Department of Justice said. The convicted killers now face life sentences in federal prison.
MS-13 members killed Mendez in August 2016 because they believed he was a spy for the rival 18th Street gang, prosecutors said. He wasn't. The men lured Mendez to Holmes Run Stream Valley Park by telling him they were having a meeting in the woods.
Instead, the gang members ambushed him and stabbed him more than 100 times with machetes, pick axes, and knives, prosecutors said. They broke Mendez's legs to get him to fit into the grave they had pre-dug at the park before the killing.
A month later, the men kidnapped and killed Sergio Anthony Arita Triminio because they believed he was speaking to police about Mendez's murder, the DOJ said. Cooperating with law enforcement is punishable by death in MS-13's code.
However, this wasn't true. A gang member had shown him the video of Mendez's murder and took him to where they buried the body, but Arita Triminio wasn't speaking with investigators.
Moris Castro, who was then 15 years old, lied to MS-13 leaders and told them Arita Trimino was a police informant. Castro testified he was cooperating with detectives, and he wanted to cover his tracks with the gang, The Washington Post reported. Castro knew Arita Triminio from when they stayed at the same juvenile detention center.
“I was the one that was talking and didn’t want them to know it was me,” Castro testified in federal court last month, the paper reported.
Arita Trimino left his Alexandria home on September 26, 2016, in his pajamas to take out the trash. MS-13 members met him outside and took him to Holmes Run Stream Valley Park. Once there, they stabbed him multiple times with machetes, knives, and a pick ax, prosecutors said.
The gang members broke his legs and used his pajamas to tie him in a position so they could fit his body in the grave they had dug, prosecutors said.
They buried the teenagers less than 50 yards apart.
A jury found Elmer Zelaya Martinez, Ronald Herrera Contreras, Henry Zelaya Martinez, Pablo Velasco Barrera, and Duglas Ramirez Ferrera guilty of kidnapping, racketeering, conspiracy, and murder charges, federal prosecutors said. They each face mandatory life sentences.
Castro, the man who lied about Arita Trimino's involvement with law enforcement, struck a deal with prosecutors for his testimony, The Washington Post reported. The paper said he pleaded guilty to maiming in aid of a criminal enterprise, and a judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors have charged 17 people in the killings, the DOJ said. Nine people previously pleaded guilty. All of them are in their 20s and early 30s.
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