MS-13 Member Convicted In Slaying

Wilfredo Montoya Baires thought he smelled a rat. Or so he told fellow members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang.

Actually, prosecutors told the jury at Baires's federal court trial in Alexandria, the 27-year-old gang member wanted to eliminate a rival. So he and three other MS-13 members went to a townhouse in Manassas, where Baires shot Jose Escobar, 22, before another gang member cut his throat.

Baires was convicted Thursday in the August 2004 slaying of Escobar, an MS-13 member who had been "greenlighted," or targeted for death, by the violent gang because of his alleged cooperation with law enforcement, prosecutors said yesterday. As it turned out, prosecutors told the jury, Escobar never did cooperate, and Baires made the accusation as a pretext for murder.

Baires became the 14th MS-13 member convicted in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on murder-related charges since 2002. Federal officials have been cracking down on the gang, considered the largest and most violent in Northern Virginia, by using racketeering statutes once employed against the Mafia. Jurors convicted Baires of murder in aid of racketeering and three other counts. Two other MS-13 members earlier pleaded guilty in Escobar's death.

The two-week trial revealed much about the inner workings of MS-13, which has its roots in El Salvador and Los Angeles, prosecutors said. Government witnesses, including several MS-13 members, testified that the Escobar killing resulted from a power struggle within the gang.

Los Angeles MS-13 members had come to Northern Virginia to impose order on the local gang, which was seen as riven by infighting and infested with cooperators, witnesses told the jury. Baires had allegedly allied himself with the Los Angeles gang members, a tactic that was opposed by Escobar.

The argument led to Baires, who viewed Escobar as a rival, telling fellow gang members that Escobar was a cooperator, according to evidence presented at the trial. The Los Angeles MS-13 members were arrested and were deported or have left Northern Virginia, prosecutors said.

Baires faces a mandatory life prison term when he is sentenced Dec. 15. The two MS-13 members who pleaded to charges related to Escobar's killing -- Wilfredo Lopez-Lopez, 29, and Fredy Escobar, 25 -- face up to 10 years in prison.

"Taking these guys off our streets and putting them in prison for a long, long time is good news for our community," said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, who vowed to "make Virginia a very inhospitable place for these violent gangs and their members."

Nina Ginsburg, an attorney for Baires, said she was "disappointed in the verdict because we did not believe this was conduct motivated by his desire to advance himself in the gang. This was an argument that got out of control."

The defense, which presented no witnesses, portrayed the killing as a heat-of-passion crime that Baires was provoked into committing by other gang members. Defense attorneys said Baires did not intend to harm anyone when he went to the townhouse.

Escobar, of Manassas Park, worked for a Loudoun construction company. He was shot about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 11, 2004, and died in surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The killing was one of a series of gang-related homicides that led federal and state officials to pour money and manpower into fighting MS-13, which has been responsible for a series of killings, assaults and other crimes in Northern Virginia.

Charges in the case were initially filed in Prince William County, and state court testimony indicated that MS-13 members had spread throughout the townhouse and blocked the exits to prevent Escobar from escaping. But further investigation showed that the gang members were concentrated in the hallway where Escobar was shot, prosecutors said.

The federal racketeering statute, known as the RICO law, was enacted in 1970 to fight the Mafia but has increasingly been used in recent years against violent gangs.

The first conviction on federal racketeering charges of an MS-13 member in the region came last year in Alexandria, and two MS-13 members charged with racketeering are now on trial in Maryland.