Current:Home > ContactLife sentence for gang member who turned northern Virginia into ‘hunting ground’ -AssetLink
Life sentence for gang member who turned northern Virginia into ‘hunting ground’
View
Date:2025-04-11 16:05:55
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Even in the violent world of the MS-13 street gang, the killings in northern Virginia in the summer of 2019 stood out. In that year, “the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area became an MS-13 hunting ground,” in the words of prosecutors.
Law enforcement had become accustomed to MS-13 killings involving rival gang members, or ones in which MS-13 members themselves became victims when suspicions arose that they were cooperating with police. What was new, prosecutors say, was that victims were chosen at random, with no connection to MS-13 or any other gang.
On Tuesday, gang leader Melvin Canales Saldana, whose orders set off the killings, was sentenced to life in prison, as was another gang member convicted of carrying out one of them. A third member was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder but was acquitted of carrying out the killing himself.
Prosecutors say Canales was the second-ranking member in the Sitios clique, or subunit, of MS-13, which had a strong presence in northern Virginia. In spring 2019, Canales ordered midlevel members to carry out their duties to kill rival gang members more aggressively, prosecutors said; up until that time, members of the clique had largely contented themselves with running cocaine between New York and Virginia.
MS-13 members responded by patrolling in Virginia and Maryland, looking for rival gang members. But they came up empty, according to prosecutors. When that happened, they instead targeted random civilians so they could increase their status within the gang.
“At first blush the murders committed in the wake of the defendant’s order seem to be the stuff of urban legend,” prosecutors John Blanchard and Matthew Hoff wrote in court papers. “Gang members forming hunting parties and killing whoever was unfortunate to cross their path was an alien concept.”
In August 2019, gang members targeted Eric Tate as he traveled to an apartment complex to meet a woman. He bled out in the street. The next month, Antonio Smith was coming home from a convenience store when he was shot six times and killed. Court papers indicate Smith asked his killers why they were shooting him.
At a separate trial, three other MS-13 members, including the gang’s U.S. leader, Marvin Menjivar Gutiérrez, were convicted for their roles in the double slayings of Milton Bertram Lopez and Jairo Geremeas Mayorga. Their bodies were found in a wooded area of Virginia’s Prince William County in June 2019. The defendants from that trial have not yet been sentenced.
Canales’ attorney, Lana Manitta, said she will appeal her client’s conviction. She said that the targeting of innocent civilians was against her client’s wishes, and that his underlings tried to portray the shooting victims as legitimate gang rivals to him so that they would earn their promotions within the gang.
“Mr. Canales repeatedly warned clique members to ‘do things right,’” Manitta said in court papers.
Prosecutors say that Canales joined the gang at age 14 or 15 while he was living in El Salvador and that he came to the the U.S. illegally in 2016 to evade arrest warrants in that country.
MS-13 got its start as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. It has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, and thousands of members across the United States with numerous cliques, according to federal authorities.
veryGood! (3274)
Related
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Biden to meet in-person Wednesday with families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas
- How rich is Harvard? It's bigger than the economies of 120 nations.
- Are post offices, banks, shipping services open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2023?
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- 'Big Bang Theory' star Kate Micucci reveals lung cancer diagnosis: 'I've never smoked a cigarette'
- Cyclone Jasper is expected to intensify before becoming the first of the season to hit Australia
- China’s Xi meets with Vietnamese prime minister on second day of visit to shore up ties
- Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
- Five whales came to a Connecticut aquarium in 2021. Three have now died
Ranking
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- Multiple injuries reported in nighttime missile attack on Ukrainian capital
- College football underclassmen who intend to enter 2024 NFL draft
- Indian police arrest 4 intruders for breaching security in the Parliament complex
- Bet365 ordered to refund $519K to customers who it paid less than they were entitled on sports bets
- South Dakota vanity plate restrictions were unconstitutional, lawsuit settlement says
- Federal Reserve may shed light on prospects for rate cuts in 2024 while keeping key rate unchanged
- Chargers QB Justin Herbert out for remainder of season with fractured index finger
Recommendation
Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
Gifts for the Go-Getters, Trendsetters & People Who Are Too Busy to Tell You What They Want
How to clean suede shoes at home without ruining them
College football bowl game opt-outs: Who's skipping bowls games to prepare for NFL draft?
Clay Aiken's son Parker, 15, makes his TV debut, looks like his father's twin
Jennifer Aniston says she was texting with Matthew Perry the morning of his death: He was happy
Anna Chickadee Cardwell, reality TV star from Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, dies at 29
Georgia and Alabama propose a deal to settle their water war over the Chattahoochee River