Alleged MS-13 thugs went human hunting during murder spree across California and Nevada: prosecutors

Three alleged members of MS-13 hunted humans across California and Nevada during a murder spree to boost their standing in the gang, a court has heard.

Joel Vargas-Escobar, David Arturo Perez-Manchame and Jose Luis Reynaldo Reyes-Castillo, face charges including murder, attempted murder and kidnapping in aid of racketeering, and weapons charges in connection with the brutal killing of 11 people from 2017 to 2018 in California and Nevada.

In the Lloyd D. George courthouse in Vegas on Monday, the jury was told the three alleged El Salvadorian gangsters looked for people they could mutilate and abduct most nights.

“They went out hunting, looking for people they could kill,” Assistant US Attorney Melanee Smith said

Smith spoke about the brutal killing of 21-year-old Izaak Towery, who she said was mistaken as a member of MS-13’s rival gang 18th street.

The Salvadoran was stabbed 235 times after being abducted off the streets in Vegas by knifepoint in February 2018.

“Towery had no idea what was going on,” Smith said, noting that the gang members questioned Izaak in Spanish but he only spoke English.

She also talked about 19-year-old Abel Rodriguez, who she said was stabbed so many times he was unrecognizable when his body was found in a field.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Perez-Manchame and Reyes-Castillo are named in the murder of Towery.

Reyes-Castillo is also accused in the muder of Rodriguez, along with several others who Smith said played a role in their deaths, but have agreed to cooperate with the government.

His defense attorney Richard Wright cautioned the jury to be wary of those who had promised to give up the goods to the prosecution. “The more you squeal, the better the deal,” Wright said.

Two of the three, Reyes-Castillo and Perez-Manchame, have also been indicted in the murder of Arquimidez Sandoval-Martinez.

The 21-year-old Salvadoran’s body was found full of bullet holes and viciously cut up the desert outside Vegas in 2018.

The details of the the night Sandoval-Martinez was abducted from a downtown Las Vegas club are gruesome.

According to the indictment, he was bound with shoelaces and taken out to the desert, where he was hacked up with a machete and shot. He was found 12 days after he disappeared. 

The trial is expected to last three months.

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