This Week in Crime: MS-13 Gang Sentencings, Plus More Fun Than You Can Shake a Can of Pepper Spray At

A 19-year-old Reston man pleaded no contest to participating in a gang-related shooting in Sterling Park back in September 2008.

On July 7, Hector Valdami Campos Aguilar entered an Alford plea on three counts of unlawful wounding, one count of using a firearm while committing a felony and one count of gang participation for the Sept. 17, 2008, shooting. An Alford plea can be entered when a defendant maintains his or her innocence but acknowledges there is enough evidence he or she could be convicted if the case goes to trial.

Campos Aguilar originally was charged with three counts of aggravated malicious wounding in the case, but they were dropped to unlawful wounding as part of the plea agreement.

Although he was 17 at the time of the attack, he was tried as an adult.

Yes, he was a member of MS-13:

According to court documents, Campos Aguilar was riding in the back seat of a car the day of the shooting, while Antonio Neftali Urrutia-Barrera, 20 -- also known as Duende -- was in the passenger seat. Both were members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, street gang at the time.

The car drove by a group of young men near the intersection of East Poplar Drive and Buckingham Court in Sterling, then returned, and Urrutia-Barrera leaned out the window and fired shots at the group, injuring three, ages 19, 20 and 21 at the time.

Court documents state the MS-13 members in the car thought the men on the street were members of 18th Street gang, their rivals.

"As Duende rolled down the window, the Defendant encouraged and urged him in the shooting by repeatedly slapping the back of the seat and yelling, 'Shoot them!! Shoot them!!'" court documents stated.

One of the victims suffered a gunshot through the arm; another suffered a shot through the torso from behind; and the third was left paralyzed from the waist down.

None of the three were 18th Street gang members, Loudoun County Sheriff's Office spokesman Kraig Troxell said.

A judge will sentence Campos Aguilar Dec. 9.

Urrutia-Barrera is serving 60 years in federal prison on several convictions for 2008 gang-related crimes.

Another MS-13 member was sentenced in June for his role in driving gang members to a 2008 shooting in Reston:

June 11, another MS-13 member and Sterling resident, Jose Enrique Rivas Ayala, 26, also known as "Pequeno", was sentenced today to 150 months in prison for driving MS-13 members to a shooting in Reston.

Meanwhile, a San Diego man has been arrested after having some fun with a gun and a can of pepper spray in South Reston:

A man was arrested after allegedly pointing a gun at a 35-year-old acquaintance and her friend, a 44-year-old man, and preventing them from leaving a home in the 2400 block of Pyrenees Court on Sunday, July 4 around 6:17 p.m. The suspect also allegedly sprayed the male victim with pepper spray. [The suspect] was arrested and charged with two counts of abduction, three counts of brandishing a firearm and assault by a chemical substance. The victims did not require medical attention.

A Reston truck driver was sentenced to two years in prison following a 2009 crash that killed two people on I-81.

The defendant was sentenced by Judge Amy B. Tisinger after a plea agreement amending two charges of involuntary manslaughter down to misdemeanor reckless driving was accepted. In addition to two years of incarceration, the defendant must pay a $5,000 fine, and his license is suspended in Virginia for a year.

He was behind the wheel of a 2006 Peterbilt tractor-trailer that rear-ended a Honda occupied by Stone T. Weeks, 24, and his 20-year-old brother, William "Holt" Weeks, on July 23 at about 10:15 p.m. at northbound mile marker 296.

The car was then pushed underneath another tractor-trailer, and all three vehicles caught fire.

Traffic had stopped because of an earlier crash at mile marker 302. Driver inattention on the defendant's part was to blame for the brothers' deaths.

And finally, another Reston man ran into a spot of bother following a Phish concert in upstate New York. Drugs? At a Phish concert? Color us amazed.