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Jose "Paciente" Henry Hernandez-Garcia, 29, of Annandale, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Friday, Aug. 4, following a two-week trial alongside two co-defendants from Maryland.
MS-13, one of the largest street gangs in the United States, is a national and international gang composed primarily of immigrants or descendants from El Salvador and other central American countries.
According to evidence presented at trial, Jose Domingo Ordonez-Zometa, the 33-year-old Landover, MD leader of the a specific MS-13 clique, called a meeting at his home on March 8, 2019, to discuss contacts that clique member, Jacson Pineda-Chicas, 16, of Falls Church.
Ordonez-Zometa questioned the teen about his cooperation with police in an investigation. Based on incorrect suspicions that the teen was cooperating with law enforcement, Hernandez-Garcia and others assaulted another MS-13 member who tried to defend Jacson.
Ultimately, Ordonez-Zometa ordered Jacson be killed.
Hernandez-Garcia, Ortega-Ayala, and other MS-13 members then stabbed and murdered Jacson in Ordonez-Zometa’s basement, authorities said. then, Ordonez-Zometa ordered Hernandez-Garcia, Ortega-Ayala, and other clique members and co-conspirators to hide and destroy evidence of the murder.
Ortega-Ayala and other MS-13 members took the teen's body to a secluded section of Stafford County, and lit it on fire. Then, they destroyed and hid evidence of the murder from the vehicle used to transport the teen's body. Meanwhile, Ordonez-Zometa, Hernandez-Garcia, and another MS-13 member stayed at the crime scene and attempted to remove, destroy, and hide evidence of the murder, including the blood of the victim.
Ordonez-Zometa was sentenced to life in federal prison on March 6. Ortega-Ayala also faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
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