The fourth and final man convicted of murder in the 2022 shooting death of a teenager in Silver Spring has been sentenced.
According to Montgomery County police, all four men involved in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Willians Anderson Alberto Cruz were known MS-13 gang members. Jonathan Leon-Chacon, 28, was sentenced Friday to 75 years in prison.
The other three men — Junior Francisco Del-Cid, Elmer Lopez-Cortez and Elvin Guzman-Machado — have already been sentenced to life in prison.
According to charging documents, the shooting happened shortly before 4 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2022, at the Northwest Park Apartments on Colony Road in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“That neighborhood has been terrorized by MS-13 for a very long time,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after three of the defendants were initially convicted. “They marked that territory, marked that area, with graffiti signifying that it was an MS-13 neighborhood.”
Four people were in the parking lot when Del-Cid and Lopez-Cortez opened fire on the group, killing Alberto Cruz and wounding two others.
Leon-Chacon, who was sentenced Friday, waited in the getaway vehicle with Guzman-Machado, prosecutors said.
The gang members, according to prosecutors, were convinced the group they opened fire on had defaced the gang-related graffiti near the parking lot where the shooting took place. McCarthy said the group actually had nothing to do with it.
“They were not involved in doing it. All four of the potential victims in this case were employed, working individuals living in the neighborhood and had nothing to do with the defacing, nor were they gang members,” McCarthy said in a previous news conference. “These men were sitting around talking, drinking and dancing. That’s how they were spending their evening.”
Witnesses estimated Del-Cid and Lopez-Cortez fired 15 to 20 shots at the four innocent victims.
Leon-Chacon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and participation in a criminal organization resulting in death, among other charges.
Along with murder, each man was convicted on the charge of participation in a criminal organization resulting in death. This case marked the first time any defendant was convicted on that charge in Montgomery County.
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