Friday, Feb. 26, 2010
Eleventh suspect in gang killing arrested in Texas
Montgomery County police say man is final suspect in gruesome murder of Langley Park teen
by Sebastian Montes

Montgomery County police say the 11th participant in the January 2009 murder of a 15-year-old in Gaithersburg is in federal custody after fleeing a Washington, D.C., group home nine days ago — hours after county detectives questioned him.

U.S. Marshals in Texas confirmed they arrested Edgar Antonio Garcia-Zavala, 18, of the 3900 block of 14th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C., on Thursday and are holding him for extradition to Montgomery County.

County police have charged him with first-degree murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping for his alleged role in the Jan. 18, 2009, death of Dennys Alfredo Guzman-Saenz, a Langley Park teen who was kidnapped, stabbed 72 times and left to die in Gaithersburg's Malcolm King Park.

Garcia-Zavala is the final suspect wanted in the gruesome killing, which investigators and prosecutors say was carried out by a clique of the violent 18th Street gang when its members mistook Guzman-Saenz for a member of their rival gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

The other 10 suspects were arrested in May. Shortly after their arrests, those suspects told investigators about an 11th participant in Guzman-Saenz's death, but said they only knew him as "Tremendo" and that he had a tattoo of a devil on his shoulder, according to county police.

Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police arrested Garcia-Zavala for attempted armed robbery on Jan. 19.

Garcia-Zavala portrayed himself as a juvenile and was put into a group home, federal and county law enforcement officials said Friday.

Montgomery County detectives questioned him for the first time about the Guzman-Saenz murder on Feb. 17.

After the meeting, Garcia-Zavala "went back to the group home, checked himself in, walked out," said Rob Fernandez, commander of the U.S. Marshals' Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Garcia-Zavala has a tattoo of a devil on his shoulder and a tattoo that reads "K Tremendo" on his stomach, county police said Friday. Detectives applied for an arrest warrant the evening of Feb. 17, said Lucille Baur, a county police spokeswoman.

"It took less than 24 hours. In that time period, he fled the group home," she said.

Metropolitan Police did not respond to a request for comment.


http://www.gazette.net/stories/02262010 ... _32576.php