Teen Gets 34 Years for Roles in Two Homicides
Edwin Reyes-Martinez | MCSAO
A 19-year-old from Gaithersburg received 34 years in prison for the roles he played in two 2015 deaths, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
Edwin E. Reyes-Martinez was sentenced Tuesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court for second-degree murder and accessory after the fact, the state’s attorney’s office said.
Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg sentenced Reyes-Martinez to 30 years for second-degree murder, the state’s attorney’s office said. Prosecutors argued Reyes-Martinez served as the “look-out” for the stabbers in the killing of 34 year-old victim, Marvin Vargas-Osorio, in August of 2015.
Greenberg sentenced Reyes-Martinez to four years, after the completion of the 30-year sentence, for accessory after the fact, the state’s attorney’s office said. Prosecutors said Reyes-Martinez took a handgun, used to kill 24-year-old Roberto Gutierrez-Cruz in November 2015, and hid it per instructions of one of the co-defendants, the state’s attorney’s office said.
Reyes-Martinez pleaded guilty in October 2016, the state’s attorney’s office said.
State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a statement that some people involved in the crimes have not been located. He asked that if anyone knows something about the murders, he or she should contact police or the state’s attorney’s office.
Vargas-Osorio’s body was found Aug. 29, 2015, in Great Seneca Stream Valley Park in Germantown, according to the police report. Buried in a shallow grave, the body could not be immediately identified, but it had suffered several stab wounds to the upper body and head, with blunt force trauma to the head as well, according to the report.
Police used medical records to identify the body as Vargas-Osorio, the report said.
Cruz was found dead in the woods on Nov. 2, 2015, near South Lake Elementary School in Montgomery Village, according to the police report. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore ruled Cruz died from multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
According to the police report, Cruz was robbed on Oct. 20, 2015, by Juan Carlos Rapalo, whom police believe to be a member of the MS-13 gang. Rapalo was arrested Nov. 4, 2015, because of a warrant.
Under questioning from police, Rapalo described the Cruz homicide and Reyes-Martinez’s role in it. In March, a federal grand jury indicted Rapalo and five others, all from Maryland, with conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. All six are believed to be members of MS-13, according to the statement.
Police arrested Reyes-Martinez on Dec. 21, 2015. Under police questioning, he described knowing Vargas-Osorio. He also described meeting Vargas-Osorio and five other men, who all had knives, a police report said.
Reyes-Martinez said he was told to keep an eye out for passersby, police said. He told police that the five men all stabbed Vargas-Osorio.
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