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Commonwealth's Attorney

Posted on: November 3, 2016

MS-13 Gang Member Sentenced to Prison

Cruz Gonzalez, Josue.jpg
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 3, 2016

Contact: Heather F. Williamson
Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
20 East Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176-2809
(703) 777-0242 
 
MS-13 GANG MEMBER SENTENCED TO PRISON

CRUZ GONZALEZ TO SERVE TEN YEARS

LEESBURG, Virginia – November 3, 2016. Josue Jeremias Cruz Gonzalez, 20, appeared before the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, in custody, for sentencing on one count of malicious wounding and one count of gang participation. Judge Douglas L. Fleming Jr. imposed ten years in the Virginia Department of Corrections.

In early November 2015, law enforcement officers with the Leesburg Police Department and the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force responded to Northeast Leesburg for a report of a stabbing. Witnesses told law enforcement that they had seen a young man stumble out of a nearby wooded area before falling to the ground in the common area of the apartment complex. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life threatening injuries.

Once medically stable, the victim advised detectives that he had been standing in the parking lot in his apartment complex when two men he knew to be MS-13 gang members approached him and began assaulting him. The two MS-13 members identified as Josue Jeremias Cruz Gonzalez and Jose Roel Guevara Machado, dragged the victim into the woods where they repeatedly struck him in the head and attempted to stab him in the chest with a machete-style bladed weapon. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds to his head, neck and hands. The victim also lost a finger in the attack and suffered permanent scarring to his face, ear, head, neck and hands.

A third co-defendant, Jose Israel Alvarenga had ordered Cruz Gonzalez and Guevara Machado to kill the victim because he refused to join the MS-13 gang.

Cruz Gonzalez pleaded guilty to the charges on July 22, 2016.

Cruz Gonzalez received an additional ten years of suspended time. Upon his release, he will be placed on five years of supervised probation.

Cruz Gonzalez, a native of El Salvador, is also being held pursuant to a Federal Immigration Detainer, which directs his removal from the United States upon his release.

Guevara Machado, 21, pleaded guilty to malicious wounding and gang participation on July 25, 2016. He is scheduled to be sentenced in Loudoun County Circuit Court on January 5, 2017 and faces up to 30 years in prison.

Alvarenga, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of gang participation, one count of malicious wounding and one count of felony obstruction of justice on August 4, 2016. He is scheduled to be sentenced in Loudoun County Circuit Court on November 10, 2016 and faces up to 40 years in prison.

The prior news release regarding this incident can be viewed at www.loudoun.gov/oca or www.facebook.com/LoudounOCA. 
 
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