Overview
- The jury found Walter Chavez Larin, Roberto Alejandro Corado Ortiz, and Edwin Martinez guilty of RICO conspiracy, with Chavez and Corado also convicted of two VICAR murders and Martinez of three.
- Brothers Bryan Alexander Rosales Arias and Erick Eduardo Rosales Arias were each convicted of one VICAR murder.
- Prosecutors said the six killings from 2017 to 2019 targeted suspected 18th Street gang members or MS-13 associates who violated gang rules in locations including the Angeles National Forest, the Malibu hills, the Santa Clarita Valley, and Van Nuys.
- Evidence detailed victims being strangled, shot, stabbed with knives or a machete, and beaten with a baseball bat, with some bodies thrown down hillsides in the Angeles National Forest.
- U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II will preside over sentencing, each defendant faces a mandatory life term, the FBI, LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department led the investigation, and prosecutors report 25 convictions to date with additional trials set for April 2026.