19-year-old Willians Anderson Alberto Cruz / Photo courtesy MCSAO
Two MS-13 gang members were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday.
Elmer Lopez-Cortez, 25, of Silver Spring, and Junior Del-Cid, 21, of Takoma Park were sentenced in two separate hearings, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office (MCSAO). They were also each sentenced to three additional life sentences plus 105 years.
They were found guilty last year of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and other charges for fatally shooting 19-year-old Willians Anderson Alberto Cruz and for injuring two other victims.
According to MCSAO, it was the first time in Montgomery County that someone was convicted of participation in a criminal organization resulting in death.
In Nov. 2022, the victims were standing around a car while listening to music in a parking lot when Del-Cid and Lopez-Cortez opened fire on them after they were convinced that the group was responsible for defacing nearby gang graffiti, per MCSAO.
The victims did not know the defendants, County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after the sentencing.
“They literally did not know each other. But this gang — this MS-13 clique — which lived in this particular neighborhood, had had some graffiti that they put up to mark their territory defaced by someone — not these men. These men, who ultimately became random targets, not associated with any defacing of their graffiti or anything like that, were then set after by Mr. Del-Cid and Mr. Cortez, armed with weapons, who attempted to gun them all down.”
Del-Cid and Lopez-Cortez were “not lawfully in the country,” McCarthy said.
A third co-defendant, Elvin Guzman-Machato, 20, was also found guilty and is scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 21. A fourth co-defendant, Jonathan Leon-Chacon, 26, of Silver Spring is pending trial. Guzman-Machado and Leon-Chacon waited in the get-away vehicle when the shooting occurred.
Police validated the four defendants as members of the La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, according to MCSAO.
