 McLEAN, Va. - A jury acquitted two members of the MS-13 street gang on all charges Tuesday in the murder of a pregnant teenager who had become a federal informant. Two others were convicted on all charges and face a possible death penalty. One of those acquitted was Denis Rivera, 22, who prosecutors said masterminded the murder of his former girlfriend, 17-year-old Brenda Paz, from an Arlington County jail cell. Paz, a former MS-13 member, was found dead on the banks of the Shenandoah River in July 2003, just weeks after she voluntarily left the federal Witness Protection Program and returned to the gang.
| Brilliant move on her part, wasn't it? |
She was to have testified against Rivera at another murder trial. Despite Paz's murder, Rivera was convicted in that case and is serving life in prison. Had he been convicted of Paz's murder, he could have faced the death penalty. The verdicts came in the fifth full day of deliberations following a monthlong trial at U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Rivera's attorneys argued that numerous members of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, wanted Paz dead for snitching, and that a gang leader in Texas gave the order to kill her. Paz had told authorities that "half of MS-13" wanted her dead. |