BEDFORD, Va. – A sixth man has been arrested in connection to the murder of a 17-year-old Lynchburg teen.
24-year-old Juan Hernandez was indicted by a federal grand jury in Albermarle County last week on one count of gang participation and two counts of felony accessory after the fact.
According to Bedford Commonwealth Attorney Wes Nance, Hernandez is being held at Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.
Raymond Wood was killed in March 2017. Authorities say his death was connected to the MS-13 gang, a violent international criminal organization that has become a focus of the Trump administration.
Lisandro Posada-Vazquez, a member of the Sailor Gang branch of MS-13, pleaded guilty to capital murder, robbery, abduction, and gang participation.
Posada-Vazquez lives in Montgomery County, Maryland. He knew two other gang members who lived in Lynchburg who were buying marijuana from Wood.
Wood and the two suspects who lived in Lynchburg had a disagreement about the amount and price of marijuana they were getting from Wood. Both sides made threats, and the suspects started plotting Wood's death. They contacted leaders in El Salvador, New York, and Maryland.
Posada-Vazquez and four others used a knife to cut Wood's throat. They cut his right hand off, and stabbed him in the chest and stomach. The medical examiner would have testified that he was stabbed 27 times by a sharp instrument.
They then dumped Wood's body in the road.