Wife of MS-13 Leader Given 3 Years in Jail

Woman Lied to Grand Jury in Slaying

The wife of a convicted MS-13 leader was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for lying to a federal grand jury investigating the gang's slaying of one of its own.

Wendy Garcia, 25, concocted a story to cover for her husband, Israel R. Cruz, and other MS-13 members who met in the couple's Hyattsville apartment before the hit, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Garcia broke down before U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow in Greenbelt, sobbing as she apologized and pleaded for leniency.

"It was because I was afraid of the gangs," she said in Spanish through a court interpreter. "They are asking what it is that I am saying, all of them. They still think I am saying things about them.

"The only thing I'm going to ask you is that you please have mercy on me," Garcia said beside her attorney, Anthony Martin.

Garcia was convicted of obstruction of justice in May after a five-day trial. The offense is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Under advisory federal sentencing guidelines, she faced about eight years.

In court yesterday, Chasanow said the crime demanded prison time.

"Lying to the grand jury is a serious offense," she said. "We need to make sure people understand that."

But the judge also noted the difficult circumstances Garcia was in: summoned to testify against a gang that readily killed people who cooperated with police.

The case under investigation by the grand jury illustrated the gang's ruthlessness. Randy Calderon and another MS-13 member killed a man early on Nov. 22, 2003, prosecutors said. But Calderon's compatriots quickly began to fear that he would fold if arrested, prosecutors said.

That worry brought them together a short time later in Garcia and Cruz's apartment. Calderon was shot to death that morning by one of the people who had been at the meeting, prosecutors said.

Described by authorities as a local MS-13 leader, Cruz was convicted this year of murder and other offenses and sentenced to life in prison. The prosecution was part of a long-running racketeering case against the gang, which has roots in El Salvador and a significant presence in Maryland and Virginia.

Garcia will probably be deported after her release, and she has said that she plans to leave her three young children in the United States, where they have been living with an aunt in California, the judge said.

Chasanow said that had Garcia accepted an offer to provide her with a lawyer in preparation for her testimony before the grand jury in 2006, she probably would have ended up in a better position.

"Things would be very, very different for you and your family," Chasanow said.

With her father looking on from the last row, Garcia, her face flush from crying, gave spectators a last glance before a U.S. marshal led her away.