A gang member has been charged in the 2008 deadly stabbing of a fellow gang member who was trying to leave the violent criminal enterprise known as MS-13, authorities said. Nineteen-year-old Nelson Javier Fuentes, of D.C., was charged Monday with first-degree murder and murder in the aid of racketeering in the slaying of 27-year-old Luis Membreno-Zelaya, also of the District.
According to charging documents, Membreno-Zelaya was trying to get out of the street gang, and had gone so far as to remove his gang tattoos. That violated MS-13’s strict rules of conduct, and gang bosses issued a “green light” for the death of Membreno-Zelaya, documents said.
| MS-13 in the capital region |
| • La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13 gang, is composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador. |
| • “Mara Salvatrucha” is a combination of several Spanish slang terms. The word “mara” is the term used in El Salvador for “gang.” “Salvatrucha” is a combination of the words “Salva,” which is an abbreviation for “Salvadoran,” and “trucha,” which is slang term for “fear us” or “look out.” |
| • Federal investigators have identified five cliques in the D.C. area, organized into a program called “La Hermandad.” |
On the night of Nov. 6, 2008, Membreno-Zelaya was found bleeding to death in the intersection of 11th Street and Otis Place NW, in the Petworth area. He had been stabbed at 20 least times in the head, neck, chest and abdomen, and his heart and lungs were punctured. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
The case went unsolved for more than two years, until agents for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement interviewed a witness who talked about the killing. The witness agreed to cooperate with the government, and pleaded guilty. A second witness was interviewed by D.C. police and ICE agents, and also agreed to cooperate, according to charging documents.
The gang members told authorities that five gang members, who knew of the orders to kill Membreno-Zelaya, saw him at an apartment in Columbia Heights in Northwest Washington and decided to kill him then.
Three gang members held Membreno-Zelaya while two other members repeatedly stabbed him, authorities said.
According to charging documents, Fuentes, who is also known as Smoke, admitted that he was a member of MS-13 and that he had participated in the killing of Membreno-Zelaya by kicking him while others stabbed him.
