Editor’s note: This article, originally published at 11:38 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2024, was updated at 3:55 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2024, to include statements from the defendants’ lawyers.
Three men, identified by Montgomery County police as MS-13 gang members, were found guilty in a fatal November 2022 shooting in Silver Spring that resulted in the death of a 19-year-old man, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
On Friday night, a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury convicted Junior Francisco Del-Cid, 20, of Takoma Park and Elmer Lopez-Cortez, 25, and Elvin Guzman-Machado, 20, both of Silver Spring, of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and other charges in a shooting that killed Willians Anderson Alberto Cruz of Hyattsville and injured two others, the county state’s attorney’s office said Tuesday in a statement.
The three men were also convicted of participation in a criminal organization resulting in death—the first time a defendant has been convicted of the charge in Montgomery County, the statement said. In addition, they were convicted of three counts of attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and four counts of use of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Each man faces life in prison without parole and four additional, consecutive life sentences plus 105 years during a Jan. 31 sentencing hearing.
A fourth co-defendant, Jonathan Leon-Chacon, 26, of Silver Spring is set to go to trial on June 16, according to the statement.
According to police, the shooting occurred Nov. 9, 2022. Officers responded before 4 a.m. for a report of shots fired in the 100 block of Colony Road. Officers found three men suffering from gunshot wounds. Cruz was found with multiple gunshot wounds in a wooded area nearby, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victims and defendants didn’t know each other before the shooting, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
County police identified Del-Cid, Lopez-Cortez and Guzman-Machado as members of the La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, the statement said. The motive for the shooting was retribution for defacing gang graffiti in a forested area next to the parking lot where the shooting occurred, according to the statement.
After the defendants became convinced the three men were responsible for the defacing, Del-Cid and Lopez-Cortez opened fire on the victims, according to the statement. Guzman-Machado and Leon-Chacon waited in a getaway vehicle.
Guzman-Machado’s lawyer, Alan Drew, said they were both disappointed in the verdict.
“I believe the jury disregarded the overwhelming evidence that my client was merely present in a vehicle and had no idea of what would transpire outside of the vehicle,” Drew told MoCo360 in an email. “After sentencing in February, an appeal will be noted on his behalf.”
Mauricio Barreiro, the lawyer representing Lopez-Cortez, said the case “may be coming back on appeal.”
“The State won this trial and the defense lost. Sentencing is not completed. The appeal is not completed. No one is giving up now,” Barreiro said in an email. “We trust the Md. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Maryland in reviewing and righting any wrongs. “
Del-Cid’s lawyer, Adedoyin Euphus Belu-John, was in trial on Tuesday and didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The other two men who were shot were treated at a hospital for their injuries. A fourth uninjured male was found at the scene, according to the statement.
Del-Cid, Lopez-Cortez, Guzman-Machado and Leon-Chacon were arrested in December 2022, according to police.