WASHINGTON — Two members of the D.C. chapter of a violent California street gang have agreed to plead guilty in connection with a 2019 armed conflict with members of the rival MS-13 gang at the Petworth Metro Station.
According to court documents, surveillance cameras captured members of the 18th Street gang drawing weapons as they approached alleged members of MS-13 inside the metro station on Sept. 17, 2019. As the two groups converged, members of both drew weapons. One, Christian Figueroa-Gutierrez, allegedly pulled a meat cleaver out of his backpack. Another, Christopher Molina-Garcia, brandished a large knife. DC Police were eventually called after a third co-defendant drew a .38-caliber Taurus revolver and fired shots.
Members of the gang handed off backpacks and fled the scene. Molina-Garcia was stopped on Sept. 27, 2019, while police were looking for a suspect in an armed robbery in the 4300 block of Arkansas Avenue NW. A large knife was discovered in his backpack but he was not placed under arrest.
A little more than a month later, on Oct. 30, 2019, police received a tip that members of the 18th Street gang were meeting in a laundry room on the 600 block of Longfellow Street NW – allegedly to plan violence against another gang. Officers responded and stopped six individuals, including Molina-Garcia and another individual who was found to have a .38-caliber Taurus revolver. The gun was eventually matched to a bullet casing found at the Petworth Metro Station.
Last week, Molina-Garcia appeared before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to plead guilty to one count of violent crime in aid of racketeering and one count of unlawful possession, brandishing and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. The first count carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The second count stems from a July 2019 armed robbery in the 4100 block of 14th Street NW.
In June, a second alleged member of the gang linked to the Petworth incident, Figuero-Gutierrez, is scheduled to enter his own guilty plea.
The 18th Street gang is one of the largest international criminal gangs in Los Angeles, according to the Justice Department, rivaling the more infamous MS-13. The DOJ says the gang now has cliques operating in 37 states and 120 cities around the country, including D.C., where members have been linked to multiple violent crimes.
In July 2017, a 19-year-old member of 18th Street, Bryan Montesino, was sentenced to 42 months in prison for two armed attacks at the Columbia Heights Metro Station. Montesino was convicted by a jury of assaulting and threatening to stab a man he believed to be a member of MS-13 in September 2016. He later pleaded guilty to brandishing a handgun and threatening to kill two other men in retaliation for what he believed to be a threat from MS-13 that same month.
In December 2019, four alleged gang members were charged with the murder of 19-year-old Sara Gutierrez-Villatoro. Gutierrez-Villatoro’s body was found shot to death in a wooded area of Maryland. The Washington Post reported at the time police believed her death was retaliation for a perceived betrayal of the gang. Two men – Rigoberto Machado and Jonathan Rivera-Escobar – have pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in connection with Gutierrez-Villatoro’s death. Machado was sentenced in December to 50 years in prison, and Rivera-Escobar is set to be sentenced on July. Two other men, Geovany Dominguez-Escobar and Jordan Moreno, are scheduled to go to trial that same month.