MS-13 gang member gets 21 years for murder of Chesapeake man

VIRGINIA BEACH — A 24-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to serve 21 years in prison for his role in the gang-ordered murder of a Chesapeake man, who was believed to be in a rival gang.

Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Kevin M. Duffan handed down the sentence to Jose Morales-Arriola, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of Jairo Guardado and participation in a criminal act at the direction of the MS-13 gang.

Guardado, 19, was known to associate with members of a rival gang but there was no evidence he was a member, said Macie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, in a news release.

Guardado was killed in July 2018 in a wooded area near the shoreline of Lake Smith. Two kayakers found his body — in a sitting position with his head slumped over — and called police. He had been shot once in the back of the head.

According to the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Guardado was lured to the lake under the guise of fishing, drinking beer and smoking marijuana. At the lake, Morales-Arriola shot Guardado once in the back of the head. Another gang member, Willian Rodriguez, then took a photo of Guardado as evidence of the killing.

Melvin Edgardo Molina-Ramos, the most senior member of the local international MS-13 gang was sentenced to 50 years in prison in February for ordering the murder. Molina-Ramos threatened Morales-Arriola and other co-defendants in the case with death if they failed to carry out the murder or if they spoke of the homicide, Allen said in the release.

Rodriguez was sentenced to 10 years in prison in April.