A nine-week trial ended Monday in downtown Los Angeles with five MS-13 gang members convicted of carrying out six sometimes-grisly murders to advance their standing in the gang, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The federal jury found Walter Chavez Larin, 26, of Panorama City; Roberto Alejandro Corado Ortiz, 30, of Baldwin Park; and Edwin Martinez, 28, of Cypress Park; each guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Chavez and Corado also were found guilty of two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering, or VICAR, murder. Martinez was found guilty of three counts of VICAR murder. Bryan Alexander Rosales Arias, 28, of South Los Angeles, was found guilty of one count of VICAR murder. Rosales’ brother, Erick Eduardo Rosales Arias, 27, also of South Los Angeles, was found guilty of one count of VICAR murder.
Prosecutors said some of the murder victims were strangled, shot, stabbed with knives or a machete, beaten with a baseball bat, then, in some cases, had their bodies thrown off a cliff or down a hill in the Angeles National Forest.
“The horrific violence in this case underscores the urgency of destroying MS-13 and putting its depraved members behind bars,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Under President Trump, MS-13 can no longer unleash terror on the American people with impunity: We will eradicate this foreign terrorist organization and secure justice for its victims.”
According to evidence presented at trial, the defendants murdered their victims who either were or perceived to be members of the gang’s rivals.
Federal prosecutors said the trial focused on Los Angeles cliques that implemented gang rules that required its members to use murder and extreme violence to rise within its ranks.
The charges relate to machete, knife, and baseball bat killings in the Angeles National Forest and several other areas in remote, mountainous locations in Los Angeles County. Those six murders — which included murders committed in the mountains near Malibu, in a remote area of the Santa Clarita Valley, and two in Van Nuys — were also charged as violent crimes committed in aid of racketeering. The six counts allege the victims were killed “for the purpose of gaining entry to and maintaining and increasing position” in the Los Angeles gang, according to prosecutors.
In June 2017, one victim — who claimed he had a leadership role in the gang — was taken to the Angeles National Forest then stabbed and hacked to death by his killers, including Chavez, prosecutors said. Several of the assailants unsuccessfully tried to decapitate him then left his body behind.
In October 2017, a man rumored to be a rival gang member was lured to his death by two teenage girls.
He was kidnapped, strangled, beaten with a baseball bat then fatally stabbed with a large hunting style knife before his body was thrown off a cliff in the Angeles National Forest. The victim’s assailants included Corado and Bryan Rosales, evidence showed.
In July 2018, a third rumored rival gang member was lured to the Malibu hills under the auspices of smoking marijuana and drinking beer with several others. While the victim stood at a scenic overlook, Corado shot him in the back of the head, prosecutors said. Corado gave the gun to Erick Rosales, who shot the victim before passing the gun to other gang members who took turns shooting him. The victim’s body ultimately was thrown off the edge of a road down a hill.
Prosecutors said Martinez murdered three victims — one of them shot to death in December 2018 after being mistaken for a rival, another was a gang associate addicted to methamphetamine — a violation of gang rules — who was shot to death on Jan. 13, 2019, and the third was a homeless man who was fatally shot on Jan. 14, 2019 for having a tattoo believed to be related to a rival gang. Chavez participated in the Jan. 13 murder, evidence showed.
U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II scheduled sentencing hearings in July 2026, at which time each of the defendants will face a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) was described by the Justice Department as a transnational criminal organization.
The Los Angeles Daily News contributed to this story.