BIDEN’S AMERICA: MS-13 gang member gets 30 years for stabbing of 16-year-old boy at Maryland home

A gang member was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in federal prison for his role in the killing of a 16-year-old boy who was stabbed and cut more than 100 times at a Prince George’s County home before his body was set on fire.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis also sentenced Kevin Alexis Rodriguez-Flores, 20, to five years of supervised release following his prison term. The plea agreement between prosecutors and Rodriguez called for a sentence ranging from 30 years to life imprisonment. Rodriguez admitted he was a member of the street gang MS-13.and took part in the March 2019 killing over the mistaken belief that the boy, a fellow member, was working with police, prosecutors said. Rodriguez came to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2016.

The boy was beaten and stabbed or cut roughly 144 times by Rodriguez and others, according to court filing. Prosecutors had sought a 35-year prison sentence for Rodriguez. The killing took place during an MS-13 clique meeting in the Hyattsville home of the clique’s leader. After the boy’s killing, clique members took his body to a secluded location in Stafford County, Virginia, and set it on fire, according to prosecutors.

A grand jury indicted Rodriguez and three other men in July 2020 on charges stemming from the boy’s killing. He is the only defendant to plead guilty as of Tuesday. Xinis has set a Sept. 17 deadline for the U.S. Justice Department to notify the court whether it intends to seek the death penalty against co-defendant Jose Domingo Ordonez-Zometa. The indictment describes Ordonez as the MS-13 clique leader and claims he ordered the boy’s killing after questioning him about a recent encounter with police [Baltimore Sun].