‘He defiles their corpses’: MS-13 gang leader who left woman ‘unrecognizable’ gets multiple life sentences for string of senseless murders

An MS-13 gang leader in Virginia will spend the rest of his life in prison for a string of murders, including a 19-year-old woman shot 16 times in the face after she disparaged the gang on social media.

Elmer De Jesus Alas Candray, 27, was sentenced on Thursday to six concurrent life prison sentences and additional terms of years following his conviction on charges relating to his participation in the gang’s criminal enterprise, including six murders and additional murder conspiracies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.

“These deaths speak volumes about the defendant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Braun said at the hearing Thursday, the Washington Post reported. “He gangs up on his victims, he shoots them in the back, and he defiles their corpses.”

Defense attorney Andrew Stewart said Alas Candray had grown up in El Salvador amid gang violence, the Post reported.

“Growing up in a city or neighborhood that is controlled by MS-13 is anything but normal,” he said.