Release ordered for man charged in MS-13 case

A Las Vegas man charged in a sweeping federal indictment against members and associates of the MS-13 gang will be released pending trial, a judge ruled Friday.

“The court is convinced that conditions exist that can be fashioned to address the danger to the community,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe said when announcing her decision at a detention hearing.

Rosalio Andres Siguenza-romero, also known as “Tweety,” will live in his home with his wife, identified only as Veronica during the hearing, and must maintain his current job as a food runner at Hugo’s Cellar inside the Four Queens.

The conditions of his release include no communication with his co-defendants, surrendering his passport and no weapons.

“The judge made the right decision based on where we’re at in the process,” his defense attorney, Todd Leventhal,

told the Las Vegas Review-journal after the hearing. “We are two days into this. The facts, or allegations, are words on paper, as I say, and mean nothing.”

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that key figures of the gang had been indicted in New

“He knew what he was doing, and he took my son’s life,” she said. “A life for a life. He should stay where he’s at. That’s how I feel.”

After convicting Brown in February, jurors decided that he should serve 20 years to life in prison for first-degree murder.

Christensen was shot six times after he handed over his wallet and cellphone and threw his hands in the air. Prosecutors said he had lured the robbers away from his pregnant co-worker, and he was shot after he told Brown he could not open the store’s safe.

Prosecutors said Brown, a documented gang member, had charges that dated back to 2005, when he was a juvenile, including drug possession, petty larceny, battery and coercion.

Defense attorneys said Brown had been bullied in school and grew up without his father, while his mother was sent to prison on a drug charge when he was about 5.

On Friday, Brown, a father of two young children, asked the judge for mercy.

“First, I would like to apologize to the Christensens for their loss,” he said. “I know how it feels to lose someone near to your heart, and I hope that one day you all will find forgiveness in your heart.”

At trial, jurors heard a 911 call from Christensen’s then-pregnant co-worker, Jamie Henderson.

At the sentencing hearing, she said she did not work for a year after the shooting and would likely never return to a job in a retail environment.

Of Brown, she said: “I don’t think he should ever see the light of day again.”

Another armed robber, Lee Dominic Sykes, 24, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to between 25 and 65 years in prison.

His older brother, Lee Murray Sykes, 26, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery charges, was sentenced to 15 to 40 years behind bars.

Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly on Friday pointed to video surveillance of what started out as an armed robbery.

“There’s no question of the three who caused the most damage in this case, and that was Ray Brown,” Weckerly said. “It was Ray Brown, of the three defendants, who changed everything.”