COURT PROCEEDINGS

MS-13 member Israel Ramos Cruz, age 30, of Wheaton, Maryland,was sentenced to life in prison on June 9, 2008.  Cruz and co-defendant Santo Maximino Garcia, age 30 of Silver Spring, were convicted on March 13, 2008, of conspiring from at least 2001 to April 2006, to conduct the affairs of MS-13 through a pattern of racketeering activity, including: eight murders in Maryland and one in Virginia; the use of firearms, baseball bats, machetes, bottles or knives in the commission of murders, attempted murders, and assaults on juvenile females, rival gang members, and an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador; kidnapping; obstruction of justice; and witness tampering. Garcia faces a maximum sentence of life in prison at his sentencing on August 15, 2008.

On July 23, 2008 a federal jury convicted Andre J. Hornsby, age 54, formerly of Mitchellville, Maryland, on three counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count each of witness and evidence tampering and obstruction of justice arising from a scheme to cause the Prince George’s County Public Schools to award lucrative contracts to benefit close associates and himself. Hornsby faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for each wire fraud count; and 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for witness and evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte has scheduled sentencing for October 20, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.