An MS-13 gang leader convicted of murdering six people in Virginia was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.
Elmer de Jesus Alas Candray, 27, who prosecutors identified as the number two man in the deadly MS-13 gang in Reston, Virginia, was one of 13 members indicted on murder charges, the Washington Post reported.
Prosecutors proved to the court’s satisfaction that the El Salvadoran national in the U.S. illegally was involved in the six slayings that he reportedly helped plan to facilitate his rise inside the gang.
At trial, witnesses describe the horrific ways that the six victims were murdered, including torture and dismembering. Some of the victims were dismembered and their parts buried in separate graves.
“These deaths speak volumes about the defendant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Braun said at Alas Candray sentencing hearing Thursday. “He gangs up on his victims, he shoots them in the back, and he defiles their corpses.”
Alas Candray’s attorney argued that since the convicted killer had grown up in El Salvador amid the gangs that life in prison would be cruel.
However, Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff showed little interest in Alas Candray’s protests.
“These are horrific crimes, and the defendant has shown no remorse, and there is no excuse for having participated in these crimes,” Judge Nachmanoff said. He added that “There are countless people from El Salvador … that have followed the law, that have never perpetrated crimes of violence against others.”
The victims included Kevin Abarca Choto, 18; Jose Lorenzo Guillen Mejia, 24; Iris Janet Ponce Garcia, 19; Santos Antonio Trejo Lemus, 40; Rene Alberto Pineda Sanchez, 27; and Francisco Raul Avelar Rivera, 42.
Alas Candray also has an immigration detainer filed against him which would lead to his deportation were he ever released from prison.
The trials for five other MS-13 gang members, including leader Orlin Erick Lopez Carbajal, are ongoing.
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