WASHINGTON — Two years ago, police found a 17-year-old shot in the back on his way to school. On Wednesday, the rival gang member responsible was sentenced.
It was just before 8:30 a.m. on September 4, 2015, when Loudoun County Police found Danny Centeno-Miranda shot and dying near his family’s apartment in Sterling, Virginia.
An autopsy found the Park View High School student was shot twice in the back and left a blood trail trying to make his way back home before he collapsed. He later died at the hospital.
Later that afternoon, court documents say, investigators quickly identified the suspect as an MS-13 gang member who likely acted after receiving an order from fellow gang members in El Salvador. Centeno-Miranda was a member of the rival 18th Street gang.
Initially, Jose Espinosa De Dios, who was 17 at the time, was charged as a juvenile, but after he was indicted and entered an Alford plea, a judge sentenced him as an adult on Wednesday to 35 years in prison, with a $25,000 fine and three years for the illegal use of a firearm in commission of a felony. For both charges, he was sentenced to three years post-release supervision.
While court documents say Espinosa de Dios lied to investigators and his mother about killing Centeno-Miranda, he told his friend the truth. Court documents said the friend was willing to testify had the case gone to trial.
While Espinosa de Dios was in police custody, investigators obtained a search warrant and found the revolver he used in the killing wrapped in tin foil and hidden in a takeout container in his friend’s freezer, according to court documents.
