A federal jury has begun deliberations this week in the racketeering and murder trial of five alleged MS-13 gang members accused of carrying out a series of brutal killings across Los Angeles County, including one near Santa Clarita. These killings are tied to the discovery of human remains following the 2019 Tick Fire.

According to prosecutors, the defendants are part of the Fulton clique of the transnational street gang MS-13, which investigators have described as “particularly violent” and operating mainly in the San Fernando Valley. The group allegedly carried out multiple murders between 2017 and 2019 to advance within the gang’s hierarchy under what prosecutors described as “Salvadoran rules,” which required recruits to kill before becoming full-fledged members.

“In 2016, the Fulton clique decided to break from MS-13’s traditional program in Los Angeles in favor of a traditional Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha program,” read a 2023 racketeering indictment filed by the Department of Justice. “The key difference between MS-13’s traditional Los Angeles program and MS-13’s Salvadoran program was that the Salvadoran program required a prospective member to have committed at least one homicide before becoming a homeboy,” or full-fledged member.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mara Salvatrucha was formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. The street gang is now comprised of tens of thousands of individuals in at least 10 states and several Central American countries, notably El Salvador.

In the mid-1990s, Mara Salvatrucha became associated with the Mexican Mafia and added the number 13 to its name (“M” is the 13th letter of the alphabet). To become a new member of a Mexican Mafia-affiliated gang, an individual underwent a 13-second beating by other members of the gang, officials said.

One of the murders at the center of the current case is that of 19-year-old Oscar Fuentes, an MS-13 member accused by leaders of using methamphetamine and missing gang meetings. On January 13, 2019, Fuentes was reportedly picked up by several MS-13 associates and driven to a remote area near Santa Clarita, where he was shot in the head.

Prosecutors said the order to kill Fuentes came from clique leader Walter Chavez Larin, who handed a revolver to a younger recruit and told him to “take care of it.” Fuentes’ complete remains have never formally been recovered.

However, on Saturday, October 26, 2019, nine months after Fuentes disappeared, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department received a report of human remains near mile marker 0.62 of Sand Canyon Road.

“An L.A. County Public Works crew was here doing some post-fire clean-up, and they stumbled across what they thought was a human skeleton,” Lt. Derrick Alfred with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said at the time. The remains were a human skull with a bullet hole, unearthed after the Tick Fire burned through the area. Federal investigators later identified the remains as Fuentes.

The same defendants are also accused of murdering 22-year-old Osvaldo Hernandez in Van Nuys, as well as five other victims in Los Angeles County between 2017 and 2019. These victims include:

– An unidentified alleged rival gang member known as “J.S.,” killed March 6, 2017, in the Angeles National Forest (victim was dismembered).
– Elvin “Winnie Pooh” Hernandez, 20, killed June 4, 2017, in the Angeles National Forest.
– Brayan Andino, 16, killed October 2017 in Lopez Canyon near Sylmar.
– Roger Chavez, 19, killed July 21, 2018, in the Malibu Hills.
– Osvaldo Hernandez, 22, killed December 6, 2018, in Van Nuys.
– Oscar Fuentes, killed January 13, 2019, near Santa Clarita (remains later found after Tick Fire).
– Bradley Hanaway, killed hours after Fuentes’ death on January 13, 2019, in Whitsett Park, North Hollywood.

In total, prosecutors say the five men on trial are connected to seven murders, while the broader federal indictment against the Fulton clique alleges 11 killings across Southern California. If convicted, all five defendants face life in federal prison.

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