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<\/p>\nAngel Guzman had been locked up for years, awaiting trial in one of the most grisly gang murder cases in Los Angeles history, when prosecutors say he chose a new tattoo.<\/p>\n
The black image, inked across his chest, showed a human heart gripped by long, clawlike fingers.<\/p>\n
To federal prosecutors, the tattoo was evidence of the crime Guzman stood accused of committing. In the Angeles National Forest in 2017, authorities say, Guzman killed and hacked up the body of Juan Jose Sibrian, carving out his heart and tossing his remains over the edge of a canyon.<\/p>\n
The killing, prosecutors told jurors at Guzman\u2019s trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom this month, was the consequence of a violent transformation inside MS-13\u2019s Fulton clique, a San Fernando Valley subset described as one of the gang\u2019s most violent factions in the United States. <\/p>\n
For most of the gang\u2019s history, Assistant U.S. Atty. Suria Bahadue told the jury, its L.A. chapters allowed young MS-13 associates to rise through the ranks by selling drugs, robbing people, carrying out beatings or putting in other \u201cwork.\u201d <\/p>\n
But in 2015, she told the jury, all of that changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a shift in the way MS-13 operated in this city,\u201d Bahadue said. \u201cThat shift resulted in extreme violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the prosecutor, the gang\u2019s leaders began enforcing \u201cSalvadoran rules,\u201d which required aspiring members to kill in order to become full-fledged \u201chomeboys.\u201d <\/p>\n
Guzman is one of four men on trial for racketeering and charges they used violence to further the gang\u2019s interests. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors charge that Edgar Velasquez was the Fulton clique\u2019s \u201ccorredor,\u201d or shot caller, deciding who lived, who died, who received credit for a murder and who earned promotion.<\/p>\n
The government maintains it was Velasquez who ordered the gang to begin adhering to the same rules laid down by the gang\u2019s leadership in El Salvador. <\/p>\n
Defense attorney James Tedford, who represents Guzman, said prosecutors do not possess fingerprints, DNA or independent witnesses. He argued that the government\u2019s case is built upon the testimony of MS-13-affiliated cooperators, who pleaded guilty to participating in the murders in exchange for leniency when they are sentenced. <\/p>\n
\u201cTheir entire case is built on murderer\u2019s row \u2014 a bunch of liars just trying to get out of jail,\u201d Tedford said. <\/p>\n
The trial is the latest in a sprawling case that began with a 2019 indictment accusing nearly two dozen MS-13 members and associates of carrying out a string of murders with machetes in the Angeles National Forest. Five people were convicted last year of six killings tied to the gang\u2019s effort to elevate members through violence.<\/p>\n
The current trial narrows the focus to three killings in 2017 that prosecutors say show how the Fulton clique\u2019s adoption of the Salvadoran rules turned L.A. County\u2019s isolated mountain roads and forest trails into killing grounds.<\/p>\n
The first victim was Sibrian.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, the Fulton clique had decided he should die because he was believed to have crossed out MS-13 graffiti and was addicted to methamphetamine, violating gang rules. On March 6, 2017, prosecutors said, Fulton members spotted him near Whitsett Park, the clique\u2019s North Hollywood stronghold, and convinced him to come with them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People visit Valley Plaza Park, nearby Whitsett Fields Park in North Hollywood.<\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
They took him to a place called the Wash, near the Los Angeles River, choked him unconscious and drove him into the Angeles National Forest, prosecutors said. Along the way, they picked up rubber gloves and alcohol. Then, in a remote area with no cell service and no witnesses, prosecutors said, Guzman, an MS-13 member named Fernando Garcia Parada and others attacked Sibrian with machetes and knives, stabbing him 107 times.<\/p>\n
The indictment alleges Guzman then sawed away at Sibrian\u2019s chest and pulled out his heart. Prosecutors said they reported what they did back to Velasquez, known as \u201cSnoopy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSnoopy was surprised at the level of violence that his foot soldiers had reached, and he promoted them,\u201d Bahadue told the jury.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Miller, who represents Velasquez, noted there was \u201cno phone contact\u201d between Velasquez and the other alleged participants on the night of the Sibrian murder. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is going to testify that they actually overheard Mr. Velasquez … order the murder,\u201d Miller told the jury in his opening statements. <\/p>\n
The second killing came about six weeks later.<\/p>\n
On April 20, 2017, prosecutors allege, a victim identified as G.B. was targeted because MS-13 believed he had cooperated with law enforcement. At another location in the Angeles National Forest, Guzman allegedly struck G.B. in the back of the head with a pistol, knocking him down. Another gang member then hit him with a rock. Prosecutors say Guzman and others repeatedly hacked at the man with a machete while a lookout watched for cars.<\/p>\n
The third killing came June 4, 2017, again in the Angeles National Forest. <\/p>\n
Elvin Hernandez, prosecutors say, was targeted because he falsely claimed to be an MS-13 member. A cooperating witness \u2014 whose name was withheld in court filings \u2014 testified that members from multiple cliques gathered in a parking area before walking up a dirt path in the dark. The witness said the group discussed who would take part in the murder and who would stay behind to watch for passing cars.<\/p>\n
The victim believed he was about to receive a \u201ccorrection\u201d \u2014 a gang beating \u2014 not be killed, according to testimony. At one point, the witness testified, the victim asked that they not hit him in the mouth because he had braces.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not going to hit you in your mouth,\u201d the witness recalled telling him.<\/p>\n
At the top of the hill, the witness said, the group formed a circle. The victim was ordered to lie down. Then the stabbing began.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all started taking turns,\u201d the witness testified. He said the group tried to remove Hernandez\u2019s head but failed because the machete blade was too dull. Then they pushed his body over the edge of the canyon and used alcohol to wash the blood from their hands.<\/p>\n
Also called Mara Salvatrucha, historians say, MS-13 began in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Central L.A. in the late 1980s. Arrests and deportations sent many members back to El Salvador, where MS-13 metastasized inside jails and poor neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Steven Dudley, co-founder of InSight Crime, a media organization and think tank that studies organized crime in Latin America, said the alleged adoption of Salvadoran rules in Los Angeles in recent years represented an attempt to import a much stricter loyalty test.<\/p>\n
U.S.-based MS-13 cliques have historically operated in the shadows, he said, understanding that grisly violence would attract attention from law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this move by [the Fulton clique] represented a break in protocol, at least a break in the sort of leadership understanding \u2026 of how far they could take things in the United States,\u201d Dudley said.<\/p>\n
Bahadue, the federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, told jurors the killings instilled a deep feeling of loyalty to MS-13. <\/p>\n
She referenced recorded statements allegedly made by another defendant, Jose Jonathan Castillo, inside his jail cell. Castillo, she said, boasted about his role in the killings and told a cellmate that the case against him had only strengthened his dedication to the gang.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I killed him, motherf\u2014s. I\u2019m going to throw \u2018MS\u2019 at them like this,\u201d Castillo allegedly said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you let me go, I\u2019ll kill again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angel Guzman had been locked up for years, awaiting trial in one of the most grisly gang murder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[138709,32050,138713,138714,138711,28450,11131,138710,5686,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,2324,1331,7214,138712,1428],"class_list":["post-335802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-angel-guzman","tag-angeles-national-forest","tag-edgar-velasquez","tag-extreme-violence","tag-fulton-clique","tag-gang","tag-heart","tag-independent-witness","tag-killing","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-member","tag-murder","tag-prosecutor","tag-salvadoran-rule","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}