The two MS-13 gang members who killed a 15-year-old girl as a sacrifice to the Saint of Death in 2017, have been convicted of murder and each sentenced to 40 years in prison, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Wednesday.
“This is a tragic case of a runaway girl falling into the clutches of a dangerous and violent gang,” Ogg said. “We will not stop in our pursuit of violent criminals who band together to terrorize communities and murder innocents.”
On Monday, just before jury selection was set to begin in his trial, Diego Hernandez-Rivera, 22, pleaded guilty to murder in the death of Genesis Cornejo-Alvarado in exchange for 40 years in prison. Hernandez-Rivera, who went by “Scary,” also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in exchange for 12 years in prison. Those sentences will run concurrently.
His partner in crime, Miguel Alvarez-Flores, 26, who went by “Diabolico,” pleaded guilty to murder in February and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors expected to show in court that Cornejo-Alvarado, whose Houston-area family had reported her missing, was dating a gang member and was chosen as a sacrifice and shot to death, likely because she disrespected their shrine to the Santa Muerte, the Saint of Death.
MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha, is a transnational gang that began in Los Angeles in the 1980s with members being deported to Central America.
Today, law enforcement arrests the gang’s members across the United States.
The case was prosecuted by the Gangs Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
The case was investigated by the Houston Police Dept., the FBI, Texas Dept. of Public Safety, Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice Office of Inspector General and the Digital Forensics Unit of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
