Alleged MS-13 members charged with homicides and racketeering
In a major update to an existing federal prosecution targeting MS-13, federal prosecutors in the Bay Area have tied three previously unsolved homicides to the infamous Los Angeles-based gang, according to an indictment unsealed this week.
The indictment adds two new murder charges to a racketeering case that was filed in March 2020 targeting 17 alleged gang members and associates. The new indictment is slimmed down; 13 people are charged, but the charges are much more serious. The defendants previously had been linked to several assaults and attempted killings, but no homicides.
“We will never stop seeking justice for murder,” acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Stephanie Hinds said in a written statement as part of a news release announcing the charges.
The new indictment charges alleged gang members with murdering a person referred to only by the initials G.A. in Bernal Heights in May 2017, as well as murdering Gilberto Martin Jr. Rodriguez, 53, on the Pacifica shoreline in February 2018. Prosecutors allege that G.A. was an MS-13 member who violated gang rules and that Rodriguez was identified as a rival gang member by the group.
In both instances, the victims were hacked with machetes, which is something of a grisly trademark for the MS-13 gang. Rodriguez
also was shot, according to police.
Additionally, the indictment charges Elmer “Godo” Rodriguez with murdering Jorge Martinez outside the Beauty Bar on Mission and Capp Streets in San Francisco. Martinez was shot and killed in March 2017. The indictment alleges other gang members were present for the shooting.
According to the indictment, alleged MS-13 members Rodriguez; Edwin Alvarado Amaya, also known as “Muerte”; and Kenneth “Nesio” Campos participated in the killing of G.A. It says Alvarado Amaya killed the man at Bernal Heights Park on Rodriguez’s direction, striking him in the head numerous times with a “bladed weapon like a machete.”
Rodriguez, the indictment alleges, was murdered by Jose Maria Tercero Perez, also known as Delito; Kevin Reyes Melendez, also known as Neutron; Kevin Guatemala Zepeda, also known as Mision; and Fernando Romero Bonilla, also known as Black.
The indictment alleges Tercero Perez and Reyes Melendez personally killed Rodriguez, and that Abner Marroquin Alegria, also known as Chapin and Coche, drove them away from the scene. Afterward, Guatemala Zepeda and Romero Bonilla allegedly returned to the crime scene to take a “portable music device” from Rodriguez that they feared might incriminate them, prosecutors claim.
The new indictment does not include seven people who were charged with racketeering last year, when the first indictment was secured.
At a Monday morning court hearing for the defendants, prosecutors said the indictment doesn’t make the defendants eligible for the death penalty, but they’re still waiting on President Joe Biden’s administration to formally decide whether to make it a capital case. Defense attorneys voiced concerns that the court process already was dragging its feet before the question of a capital review came into play.
“These gentlemen are in limbo. Now we’re hearing about another delay for internal process,” attorney Peter Arian, who represents Alvarado Amaya, said in court Monday.
Prosecutors say they’re in the process of turning over new discovery to the defense, which includes digital downloads from dozens of cellphones as well as surveillance video from some of the crimes.
In March 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern California secured the first indictment, charging 17 with assaults, attempted murders and trying to shake down rival drug dealers in San Francisco.
MS-13 originated in Los Angeles and has branched out to El Salvador, where many of its members or their parents are originally from. It has an estimated 60,000 members. The gang is known for being particularly violent, and using long knives or machetes in murders. In 2019, prosecutors linked the gang to seven murders in the San Fernando Valley.