Four MS-13 Members Convicted in Three Brutal 2017 Murders in Southern California
A federal jury convicted four MS-13 gang members Thursday for three murders in Southern California in 2017, including one in which a victim's heart was removed. All four face mandatory life sentences.
Four MS-13 Members Guilty of Three 2017 Murders Near Angeles National Forest
Four members of the MS-13 street gang were convicted in federal court Thursday for their roles in three separate murders committed during a crime spree across Southern California in 2017, NY Post Metro reports. One of the killings was so extreme that the victim's heart was cut from his body, his remains dismembered and thrown into a canyon.
The defendants found guilty are Angel Amadeo Guzman, 31, of Panorama City; Fernando Garcia Parada, 28, also of Panorama City; Edgard Velasquez, 43, of Reseda; and Jose Jonathan Castillo, 34, of Koreatown. All four remain in federal custody. Jurors found them guilty of racketeering conspiracy and violent crimes in aid of racketeering, including murder.
Prosecutors said the killings were carried out in accordance with MS-13's internal rules, which require extreme violence and murder as a mechanism for members to advance within the organization. The gang operates through local cliques — among them the Fulton clique in the San Fernando Valley and the Francis clique near MacArthur Park — and finances itself through drug trafficking, extortion and robbery.
First killing: March 2017
The initial murder took place in March 2017 after a victim was accused of defacing rival gang graffiti. Velasquez authorized the killing, prosecutors said. Guzman, Garcia Parada and others abducted the man, strangled him unconscious and drove him into Angeles National Forest. There, the group attacked him with machetes, dismembered his body, removed his heart and dumped what remained in a canyon.
Second killing: April 2017
In April 2017, Guzman and co-conspirators targeted a man who had fled El Salvador without MS-13's authorization while under internal investigation for allegedly cooperating with law enforcement. Gang members created a fake Facebook account posing as a teenage girl to lure him to the forest, where he was killed.
Third killing: June 2017
The third murder occurred in June 2017. Castillo, Garcia Parada and others killed an MS-13 associate who had been accused of inflating his status within the gang. He was taken to the forest and stabbed and hacked to death.
Sentencing and broader case
US District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. has scheduled sentencing for October 20. Each of the four defendants faces a mandatory life sentence in federal prison.
Prosecutors said the broader case has produced more than 30 convictions in total. In November, five additional MS-13 members were convicted in related murders tied to internal efforts to climb the gang's hierarchy; sentencing for those defendants is expected in the coming months.
Source: NY Post Metro