LYNN — A 24-year-old MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to participating in the 2018 murder of a teenager in Lynn, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Jonathan Tercero Yanes a.k.a. “Desalmado” was charged with racketeering conspiracy, which prosecutors said involved the murder. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Tercero Yanes, a national of El Salvador, is a member of the MS-13 transnational street gang that is present in Massachusetts and other states, as well as countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, prosecutors said.
Tercero Yanes was indicted in 2018 after an investigation into the murder of a teenage boy whose body was found in a park in Lynn on Aug. 2, 2018, prosecutors said.
The injuries to the victim’s body showed that the teenager had been stabbed more than a dozen times. Tercero Yanes admitted, as a part of his plea, that he participated in the murder while he was a member of the gang, prosecutors said.
He is the fourth defendant to plead guilty and accept responsibility for his participation in the murder. The other defendants in the case are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, prosecutors said.
MS-13 members follow certain core rules and principles, including that members attack and attempt to kill members of rival gangs, and members do not act as informants or cooperate with law enforcement.
MS-13 is organized in the form of “cliques,” or smaller groups that operate under the larger mantle of MS-13. Tercero Yanes was a member of the Sykos Locos Salvatrucha clique of MS-13. To be promoted in the MS-13 gang, the commission of a significant act of violence is usually required.
U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Sept. 15 and Tercero Yanes will be subject to deportation upon the completion of his sentence.
