Inset: Elmer Alas Candray. Background: The location where a victim of MS-13 was found in Virginia. (WTTG).
A gang leader from MS-13 in Virginia has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of a series of murders. These include the killing of a 19-year-old woman who was shot 16 times in the face for criticizing the gang on social media.
Elmer De Jesus Alas Candray, aged 27, received six consecutive life sentences and additional years behind bars for his involvement in the gang’s criminal activities. This included six murders and additional conspiracy to commit murder charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
During the hearing on Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Braun highlighted the brutal nature of the crimes. She stated that the defendant targeted his victims, shooting them from behind and disrespecting their bodies after death.
Defense attorney Andrew Stewart said Alas Candray had grown up in El Salvador amid gang violence, the Post reported.
“Growing up in a city or neighborhood that is controlled by MS-13 is anything but normal,” he said.
As Law&Crime has reported, the bloody crime spree dates back to 2018. A gang associate was killed after a dinner one night, beaten and strangled with a belt, and his body cut up with knives in a bathtub before his remains were placed in trash bags and buried in the woods in New Bedford, Massachusetts. One co-defendant stayed behind and cleaned the bathroom with bleach. Those who participated in the killing were promoted up the ranks in the gang, court documents said.
The man’s remains haven’t been found.
Another victim was shot and hacked with a machete in May 2019 while on a walking trail, an area the gang claimed as their turf, court documents said.
In September 2020, Iris Janet Ponce Garcia was lured to her death in the woods. She had disparaged the gang on social media, prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Braun told the court, “They shot Iris 16 times, primarily in the face, leaving her unrecognizable,” the Post’s Salvador Rizzo reported.
In March 2021, a 40-year-old victim was ambushed in the entryway of his apartment. In June 2022, a 27-year-old man was shot, and the gang had dropped at least one large rock on his head, court documents said.
In 2022, Alas Candray and others stabbed and beat with a baseball bat a fellow gang member, 42, for inflating his rank in the gang and buried his remains in the woods, where authorities found them more than a year later.
“They cut off his head. They cut off his hands. They cut off his arms. They cut off his legs,” Braun said.
MS-13 — or La Mara Salvatrucha — is made up primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador, with members operating across the U.S., officials said.
