Suspects arrested in connection with Mall murder
By James Cullum
Two alleged MS-13 gang members have been arrested and charged with the late-night December 2007 murder of a Springfield man in the parking lot of the Cerro Grande restaurant at Springfield Mall.
Rafael Parada-Mendoza and Hosman Perez-Amaya, both 21 and both formerly of Fairfax County, were arrested in Texas on March 14, 2008.
A federal grand jury indicted the pair in Alexandria on April 25.
At 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 2, 19-year-old Christian Argueta left the Cerro Grande Restaurant, which is also a nightclub, just before it closed at 2 a.m. Argueta and two suspects started arguing in the parking lot, and Argueta was shot and killed.
Since the incident, county police have been trying to establish a link between the shooting and a Nov. 30, 2007, Springfield stabbing at a Pizza Hut along Commerce Street.
The indictment charges that Parada-Mendoza, also known as "Chevi," and Perez-Amaya, also known as "Dandy," belong to the Pinos Locos Salvatrucha clique of the street gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
Argueta was an alleged member of rival gang South Side Locos. Justice Department officials maintain that the suspects committed the murder to "maintain and increase their position in the gang."
Both suspects are natives and citizens of El Salvador, according to Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs records obtained by the FBI. According to the search warrant affidavit, at least one of the suspects, Parada-Mendoza, was ordered deported on Feb. 23, 2006, but "failed to appear for deportation as required."
An FBI investigator interviewed an alleged MS-13 member present at the nightclub the evening of the homicide. Each interviewee attested that Parada-Mendoza admitted to them that he had killed Argueta.
"In addition to interviewing [the informant], my colleagues and I have interviewed two other people who told me that 'Chevi' was a member of MS-13 and admitted that he shot the victim outside the Cerro Grande. In addition, my colleagues interviewed another cooperating witness who said Chevi possessed a gun and showed the gun to that cooperating witness," the affidavit said.
The pair have been charged with murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder and assault in aid of racketeering, use of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death, and possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. The maximum sentence for the murder in aid of racketeering charge is death or life imprisonment.