This Week in Crime: Third MS-13 Conviction in Fall 2008 Shooting

A 20-year-old Reston MS-13 gang member was sentenced to 60 years in prison for his role in a October 2008 gang-related shooting in South Reston.

Antonio Neftali Urrutia-Barrera, 20, of Reston, Va., was sentenced today to 720 months in prison, followed by a 5 year term of supervised release, for his use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence... Barrera had previously pled guilty on January 5, 2010.

According to court documents, Antonio Urrutia Barrera, a.k.a. ADuende@ was a full member of the transnational Hispanic street gang Mara Salvatrucha Thirteen (AMS-13@), and as a member of MS-13, the defendant abided by certain gang rules that included attacking rival gang members and supporting or backing up fellow gang members. During his active membership with MS-13, the defendant engaged in multiple acts of violence on behalf of the gang. First, on September 17, 2008, in Loudoun County, Virginia, the defendant, while riding as a passenger in a vehicle with another MS-13 member, observed what he perceived to be rival gang members on the side of a suburban street. The defendant brandished a revolver and fired multiple shots out of the vehicle at the group of individuals. The defendant wounded three individuals, one of whom now remains paralyzed from the waist down.

On October 6, 2008, the defendant was present at a second, violent MS-13 attack that took place in Reston, Virginia. In this instance, the defendant, along with fellow MS-13 members Jose Aguilar Orantes and Dennis L. Gil Bernardez, approached two rival gang members in a suburban park during the middle of the day. The defendant and his two fellow gang members approached the two rivals and a third, unaffiliated bystander, at which point Dennis Bernardez began to shoot at the two rival gang members and finally at the third individual. Two of the victims, including the unaffiliated bystander, were critically injured and transported to Fairfax Hospital=s trauma center, each suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Both critically injured victims suffered permanent injuries.

In July 2009, Bernardez and Aguilar were tried and convicted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia for their roles in the October 6, 2008, triple shooting. Bernardez was sentenced to 80 years in prison, while Aguilar received 55 years.

Police claim that the convictions are causing MS-13 membership to decline:

The notoriously violent MS-13 gang is starting to shed members in the Washington region because gang members fear prosecution and stiff prison terms, federal prosecutors said in recently filed court documents.

Sentences like Barrera's are starting to have an effect on MS-13 members in Northern Virginia, prosecutors said. "In recent months, multiple MS-13 members from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area have stated that their reason for severing ties from the gang is because of the prosecution and lengthy incarceration of their fellow gang members who committed and supported violent acts," assistant U.S. attorneys in Alexandria wrote in court documents.

The office declined to comment further.

The two MS-13 members who participated in an Oct. 6, 2008, Reston shooting with Barrera also received stiff sentences after a jury convicted them of their roles in July.

Dennis Gil Bernandez, who opened fire at two rival gang members and an innocent bystander in a Reston park on Oct. 6, 2008, was sentenced to 80 years in prison. The shots permanently injured the bystander and one of the rival gang members.

Barrera and Jose Aguilar Orantes were with Bernandez when he started shooting. Orantes was sentenced to 55 years in prison.