Josue Fuentes-Ponce is a MS 13 gang member who was convicted in the murder of a fourteen year old girl in Maryland. According to court documents Josue Fuentes-Ponce along with three other teens would lure the victim to an abandoned field where she was beaten and stabbed to death with a machete. Josue Fuentes-Ponce and the other MS-13 gang members thought that the victim was going to tell the police about a previous gang kidnapping. This teen killer would be sentenced to life in prison however he only needs to serve fifty years
Josue Fuentes-Ponce Other News
A 17-year-old, who pleaded guilty to the brutal gang-linked slaying of a 14-year-old Maryland girl last spring, has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Josue Fuentes-Ponce, who was 16 at the time of the killing, had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and participating in a gang.
Josue Fuentes-Ponce was one of four teens who authorities said drove Ariana Funes-Diaz to a wooded area in Riverdale, Maryland, in April and attacked her with a baseball bat and a machete. Her body was discovered near a creek a month later.
Police said the teens, who were members of the MS-13 street gang, were worried Funes-Diaz would rat them out for an earlier gang-related kidnapping and robbery in D.C.
Josue Fuentes-Ponce was formally sentenced to life in prison, but the judge suspended all but 50 years. In addition, he will be subjected to five years of supervised probation after his release.
One of the other teens charged in the slaying, 18-year-old Joel Escobar, pleaded guilty in November and is due to be sentenced Feb. 26.
Edwin Rios, 19, has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial in April.
Another defendant — also a 14-year-old girl — was initially charged as an adult, but her case was moved to the juvenile court system.
In a separate, earlier case, Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar were arrested in May 2018 on charges of attempted murder and attempted robbery, and were transferred to a state-run youth detention center. They were eventually released following the disposition of that case.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said both teens were in the country illegally, and local authorities failed to honor a detainer request to hold the teens. State and local authorities said they were following state guidance, which calls compliance with ICE detainers voluntary.
Teen gets 50 years in MS-13 killing of 14-year-old Maryland girl
Josue Fuentes-Ponce More News
A 17-year old MS-13 gang member was sentenced to life in prison on Monday with all but 50 years suspended for his involvement in the murder of 14-year-old Ariana Funes-Diaz.
Josue Fuentes-Ponce had been charged with first-degree murder, involvement in committing murder while part of a criminal gang and conspiracy to commit murder in Funes-Diaz’s death in April.
Josue Fuentes-Ponce entered a guilty plea to those counts on October 30, 2019
Fuentes-Ponce and three others lured Funes-Diaz to a tunnel in Riverdale on April 18 where they then beat her to death with a machete and a baseball bat, police said.
In May, officials said the group believed Funes-Diaz was going to tell the police about a crime they had all committed the day before in Washington, D.C.
Co-defendant Joel Escobar, 18, entered a guilty plea on November 25, 2019, and is scheduled to be sentenced on February 26, 2020.
Edwin Rios, 19, is scheduled for trial beginning April 13, 2020.
The charges against the remaining co-defendant, who is 14, were handled in juvenile court.
Josue Fuentes-Ponce will face five years of supervised probation upon his release from incarceration, according to the release.
MS-13 Gang Member Sentenced To 50 Years In Prison In 14-Year-Old Ariana Funes-Diaz’s Murder
Josue Fuentes-Ponce News
Three Maryland teenagers have been charged as adults in the brutal slaying of a 14-year-old girl who police said may have planned to go to authorities about a crime she and the suspects committed last month
Josue Fuentes-Ponce, 16, of Bladensburg, Joel Escobar, 17, of Northeast Washington, D.C., and Cynthia Hernandez-Nucamendi, 14, of Lothian, are each charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ariana Funes-Diaz. Funes-Diaz’s body was found Wednesday in a creek in Riverdale, about eight miles northeast of Washington, D.C.
An autopsy conducted Thursday found that Funes-Diaz died of blunt force trauma, according to officials with the Prince George’s County Police Department.
Funes-Diaz was reported missing from Anne Arundel County on or around April 18, along with Hernandez. The two girls were considered “critical missing juveniles.”
Anne Arundel County authorities said the teens were seen in the Washington, D.C., after they were reported missing and were believed to be in D.C. or Prince George’s County.
Maj. Brian Reilly, commander of Prince George’s County’s Criminal Investigations Division, said Thursday during a news conference that the department’s gang unit got a tip Monday about a possible murder back in April in which the victim was dumped in a wooded area of Riverdale. Investigators from Prince George’s County, along with agents from the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, searched the woods in the 6300 block of 64th Avenue.
“We ultimately found our murder victim there, in the creek,” Reilly said.
