A federal jury in Alexandria convicted an MS-13 gang leader of six murders that took place from 2018 to 2022. Five of those murders occurred in Fairfax County and one in Massachusetts.
After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated two hours before finding Elmer de Jesus Alas Candray, 27, guilty of 14 counts.
Alas Candray, one of the top leaders in the gang’s Reston-area cell, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison, The Washington Post reports. He will be sentenced on January 30.
Five of seven co-defendants who pleaded guilty to the crimes took the stand against Alas Candray.
The gang members killed the victims, who ranged in age from 18 to 42, in various ways. The victims had been shot, strangled, beaten, stabbed, and clubbed. The murder weapons were found in Alas Candray’s bedroom in a Manassas home.
“The defendant got his hands dirty in every single one of these crimes,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John C. Blanchard said of the gang leader during closing arguments, The Washington Post reports.
Jose Lorenzo Guillen Mejia, 24, of Reston was shot to death in June 2020 near a walking trail between Hunters Woods Plaza and Breton Court in Reston. He was killed as the gang patrolled its turf.
Iris Ponce Garcia, 19, of Reston, also was shot in Reston in the area of Colts Neck Road and Glade Drive in September 2020. She was a waitress who posted a social video that disparaged the gang.
Shot to death in the entryway of his apartment was Santos Antonio Trejo Lemus, 40, of Reston. Alas Candray ambushed him in March 2021 in the 2200 block of Winterthur Court, according to testimony.
Found on a walking path in Reston in June 2022 was Rene Pineda Sanchez, 27, of Reston. The gang smashed his skull with a large rock.
The gang also killed fellow gang member Francisco Avelar Rivera, 42, in June 2022. He was beaten, stabbed, and dismembered in Seneca Regional Park in Great Falls. He had last been seen in Reston.
The dismembered body of an 18-year-old Massachusetts victim who owed MS-13 money has never been found, The Washington Post reports. He was killed in 2018.
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
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