JUDGE

Woman Who Lured Man to Park in Fatal Stabbing Gets 40 Years

Prosecutors said Vanesa Alvarado promised Cristian Villagran-Morales sex, but she instead led him to MS-13 gang members

A woman who lured a man to a Maryland park where he was killed was sentenced to 40 years in prison. 

On Tuesday, a Montgomery County judge sentenced Vanesa Alvarado, 20, to life in prison, but suspended all but 40 years, in the slaying of Cristian Villagran-Morales, 18, in a Gaithersburg park in June 2016. Alvarado pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. 

During sentencing, Judge Anne Albright said Montgomery County cannot be a community that tolerates violence of this kind.

Prosecutors said Alvarado promised Villagran-Morales sex, but she instead led him to MS-13 gang members, who were waiting in the park. Alvarado reportedly laughed as Villagran-Morales was attacked. Police said the victim was stabbed more than 150 times, and his body was left in the woods. 

Villagran-Morales was not believed to be in a gang and was a hardworking man who did nothing wrong, police said. He was from New Jersey and had been staying with cousins in the D.C. area for two months while working a landscaping job, they said.

Prosecutors have three of the four gang members charged in Villagran-Morales's death. The fourth is in jail in Bedford, Virginia.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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