MS-13 member faces death penalty after officials accuse him of murdering two teens

The US Justice Department is seeking the death penalty for an MS-13 gang member accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing two Virginia teens, court records show.

Elmer Zelaya Martinez, 27, is accused of being the ringleader of the violent Virginia-based Park View Locos Salvatrucha clique of the El Salvador-based gang behind two separate murders in 2016.

Martinez, an immigrant from El Salvador whose street name is “The Killer,” is one of 11 charged in the deaths of Edvin Mendez, 17, and Sergio Triminio, 14, who were lured and later found in shallow graves in Fairfax County, WUSA9 reported.

Mendez was targeted for being in the rival 18th Street gang, while Triminio was butchered because MS-13 suspected he was a police informant, court documents show.

Martinez was singled out for the death penalty because of the “substantial planning and premeditation” and “his lack of remorse,” according to court papers filed in Virginia federal court Monday.

He “committed the offenses in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner in that they involved torture and serious physical abuse,” Zachary Terwilliger, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, wrote in the papers.

Instead of remorse, he was caught “celebrating” and “bragging about” the killings, the papers claim.

The accused gang killer also poses an ongoing risk even if locked up in prison — and has already been twice caught with a shank while behind bars and awaiting trial on murder and kidnapping charges, the papers claim.

“The United States believes that the circumstances of each offense is such that a sentence of death is justified, and the United States will seek a sentence of death,” the papers state.

Defense attorney Robert Jenkins believes the motivation is to support President Trump’s tough stance on immigration, he told the Washington Post. Trump has previously called MS-13 gang members “animals.”

“I strongly suspect politics is playing a significant role rather than whether or not this is the appropriate thing to do to serve justice,” Jenkins told the paper.

“Whether or not they truly believe that justice would be served by seeking the death penalty I think is maybe a secondary concern versus what political chips they can gain with his base by appearing to be tough on illegal immigrants.”

Jenkins told WTOP, “We are really hopeful that when all the facts come out, that a jury that can see through the politics that are being leveraged here, that Mr. Martinez will be spared a death sentence.”

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