Five members of MS-13 were convicted in federal court for six murders tied to gang rules and violent rank advancement, and they now face mandatory life sentences when they are sentenced in July 2026.
Federal jurors returned guilty verdicts after a nine-week trial that laid out brutal killings carried out to boost status inside MS-13 Los Angeles cliques. The methods described at trial included strangling, shootings, stab wounds from knives and a machete, and beatings with a baseball bat, with several victims’ bodies discarded in remote areas of the Angeles National Forest.
The court found that Walter Chavez Larin, 26, of Panorama City; Roberto Alejandro Corado Ortiz, 30, of Baldwin Park; and Edwin Martinez, 28, of Cypress Park were guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Chavez and Corado were also convicted of two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR) murder, while Martinez was convicted of three VICAR murder counts. Bryan Alexander Rosales Arias, 28, of South Los Angeles, and Erick Eduardo Rosales Arias, 27, of South Los Angeles, were each found guilty of one count of VICAR murder.
“The horrific violence in this case underscores the urgency of destroying MS-13 and putting its depraved members behind bars,” said United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “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.” The verdicts reflect a hardline approach that many conservatives have pushed for: prosecute, prosecute aggressively, and remove violent gang leaders from the streets.
Court records show victims were targeted because they were believed to be members of the rival 18th Street gang or because they had violated MS-13 rules. Prosecutors laid out a pattern: recruits were required to demonstrate loyalty and ascend the gang hierarchy through murder and extreme violence, a chilling structure that federal and local authorities sought to dismantle during the investigation.
“We thank the jury for returning swift guilty verdicts against these MS-13 criminals who engaged in horrific acts of violence and murder,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “I thank and commend our law enforcement partners for their work in removing members of this terrorist organization from our streets. MS-13 is a violent brutal gang that must be eliminated from the United States, and we will not stop until we succeed in our mission.” Those words underscore the prosecution’s message: coordinated enforcement and federal tools can break violent cells.
“Cases such as this one serve as a reminder that MS-13 has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The defendants in this case carried out barbaric attacks on their victims to simply enhance their ranking within the gang. I’m proud of the hard work that went into this trial by agents and prosecutors which resulted in a guilty verdict and a measure of justice for the victims, and which will effectively remove murderers and terrorists from Los Angeles communities.” That emphasis on counterterrorism-style prosecution reflects a strategy aimed at dismantling transnational organized crime.
The six murders charged as VICAR counts span remote mountain locations around Los Angeles County, including areas near Malibu, the Santa Clarita Valley, and multiple scenes in Van Nuys. Investigators described victims who were kidnapped, beaten, shot, or hacked with edged weapons, and then abandoned in inaccessible terrain to hide the crimes, a tactic that increased fear and hampered early detection.
In June 2017 one victim who claimed to have an MS-13 leadership role was taken to the Angeles National Forest and stabbed and hacked to death; assailants attempted to decapitate him and left his body behind, with Chavez identified among the killers. The brutality and the attempted mutilation in that attack were a central part of the evidence showing intent to terrorize and enforce gang rules through extreme violence.
Another killing in October 2017 involved a victim lured by two teenage girls, then kidnapped, strangled, beaten with a baseball bat and fatally stabbed with a large hunting-style knife before being thrown off a cliff in the Angeles National Forest. Corado and Bryan Rosales were among those charged in that assault, which prosecutors argued was a planned effort to remove a perceived rival.
In July 2018 a victim lured to Malibu hills on the pretense of a social gathering was shot in the back of the head by Corado, with Erick Rosales also firing and other MS-13 members taking turns shooting the victim before his body was pushed down a hill. That sequence of events was used at trial to show coordinated, collective action intended to maintain MS-13 control and instill terror in rival groups and communities.
Martinez was linked to three killings across late 2018 and January 2019: one man shot after being mistaken for an 18th Street member, another MS-13 associate killed for drug use that violated gang rules, and a homeless man killed for a tattoo thought to indicate 18th Street ties. Chavez participated in the Jan. 13 murder, and the pattern illustrated how internal discipline and rank advancement were enforced through lethal force.
Sentencing hearings are set before United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II in July 2026, when each defendant faces a mandatory life term in federal prison. Prosecutors have already secured 25 convictions in the broader case, and several other MS-13 members and associates are scheduled for trial in April 2026 on racketeering conspiracy and gang murder charges.
The investigation involved the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Catharine A. Richmond and Sara B. Vargas of the Major Crimes Section, Benedetto L. Balding of the Transnational Organized Crime Section, William Larsen of the Criminal Appeals Section, and Special Assistant United States Attorney Eric W. Siddall are prosecuting this case.
