2024-01-19 03:25:00
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A federal jury on Thursday convicted members of the MS-13 gang of murdering two men who prosecutors said were randomly marked for death because the gang needed to train “soldiers” in the summer of 2019 to claim more territory in Virginia.
Melvin Canales, who was the second-in-command of an MS-13 cell called Sitios Locos Salvatrucha, and another member of the group, Jairo Aguilera, face mandatory terms of life in prison for participating in the slayings of Eric Tate, 25, and Antonio Smith, 37.
A third MS-13 member, Manilester Andrade, who admitted to selling cocaine for the gang but denied killing anyone, was acquitted of charges that he participated in Tate’s murder, in August 2019. Andrade was convicted of conspiracy and drug-dealing counts, and faces a maximum sentence of decades in prison.
Judge Leonie M. Brinkema scheduled their sentencings for April 30 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. A second trial, with three other defendants implicated in the same string of murders in Prince William County, is set to begin Monday.
The separate nighttime shootings took place as Tate was walking toward a female acquaintance’s home in Woodbridge and as Smith was exiting a 7-Eleven in Dumfries, carrying a bag filled with food and drink.
Jurors deliberated for one day before returning their verdict. According to prosecutors, witnesses, and text and voice messages displayed during the week-long trial, Canales urged the others to kill rival gang members, or people they suspected of being involved in street activity, so the MS-13 members could be promoted to higher ranks and increase their turf. Aguilera was accused, along with others, of shooting Smith in September 2019.
MS-13 terrorized Northern Virginia by killing at random, witnesses say
Two witnesses who pleaded guilty to murder and other charges were sentenced to life imprisonment. They struck cooperation agreements with federal prosecutors and gave testimony that implicated their former associates in the drug-dealing and murder conspiracy.
But the jury was allowed to consider only the testimony of one cooperating witness who admitted to murder, Mario Guevara. He said he was not present for Tate’s killing. The other witness, Abner Molina, said that he was present that night and that Andrade and another MS-13 member had shot Tate.
Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to provide them with key evidence about Molina before the trial began, and Brinkema granted their motion to strike his testimony.
Andrade’s attorneys, Frank Salvato and Michael Sprano, said they were “overjoyed and overwhelmed” by the jury’s verdict and “attention to detail.” Sprano said during closing arguments that the forensic evidence from the scene indicated that it was Tate who opened fire first when the MS-13 members began to approach him.
“He panics and he pulls out his gun and he starts shooting,” Sprano said. Another MS-13 member, Cristian Arevalo, shot back in self-defense, Sprano argued. In response, Assistant U.S. Attorney John C. Blanchard called it a “hypothetical fantasy scenario” and added that “nothing he says is corroborated by the physical evidence.”
Arevalo’s trial begins Monday. Also on trial will be Marvin Menjivar, who is alleged to have been the leader of the Sitios Locos Salvatrucha cell of MS-13, and Carlos Turcios, who is accused of participating in the double homicide of Milton Beltran, 40, and Jairo Mayorga, 39, in Woodbridge in June 2019.
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