An 18-year-old Gaithersburg man linked to the street gang MS-13 was sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday for fatally stabbing one man and attempting to kill another last year, Prince George’s County prosecutors said.
Eduardo Escobar Martinez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree attempted murder and two counts of first-degree assault in June.
According to prosecutors, Martinez used a black screwdriver to stab one of the victims 44 times. Witnesses said he yelled “Mara-Salvatrucha,” the name of the Central American gang, prior to the Langley Park attack.
Martinez faced a total of 90 years in prison; he received the maximum 30 years for the second-degree attempted murder charge and the maximum 10 years for the involuntary manslaughter charge.
He also faced 25 years for each of the two first-degree assault charges, but officials in the county prosecutor’s office said that time was rolled into the sentence for second-degree attempted murder.
“We were seeking the full prison time,” said Ramon Korionoff, spokesman for Prince George’s County attorney Glenn Ivey. “But 40 years is a good, strong sentence, and we’re satisfied with the judge’s rendering of the sentence. It brings justice to the situation, and we hope this will be a further deterrent to any criminals out there who have violent intentions — they will do hard time for their crimes.”
Korionoff said prosecutors asked the jury to convict Martinez of second-degree murder, but “the jury came to that decision of involuntary manslaughter. In their mind it was not a premeditated attack.”
