Murder suspect has gang ties, is illegal immigrant

Friday, June 13, 2008

Murder suspect has gang ties, is illegal immigrant

by Sebastian Montes | Staff Writer

E-mail this article \ Print this article

The 18-year-old charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Montgomery Village waiter is an illegal immigrant with ties to the El Salvadorian gang MS-13, according to testimony during a bond hearing Friday and police.

The public defender for Manuel Antonio Barahona of Gaithersburg asked that his client be held without bond. Given that Barahona has a deportation warrant against him, if he was released on bond, federal agents would arrest him and transport him to a federal facility, said Samuel Delgado, the public defender.

Montgomery County District Court Judge Patricia L. Mitchell agreed.

Speaking in Spanish via closed-circuit television from the Montgomery County Detention Center in Rockville, Barahona repeatedly asked for bond.

‘‘I need bond. I have family. I have a brother. I have to work,” he said.

But Mitchell and Delgado tried to explain that because of the immigration detainer, he needed to be denied bond.

‘‘[Delgado] would rather have you stay in this jail than the immigration jail,” Mitchell said through a court translator.

Capt. Alan Goldberg, commander of the county police's 6th District station in Gaithersburg, said in an interview Friday that Barahona is associated with MS-13 but would not elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation.

Barahona is being held in connection with the death of Longyuan ‘‘Mooney” Wang, 24, a popular waiter at the Red Robin restaurant at Lakeforest mall. Wang was stabbed multiple times at about 11 p.m. on June 5 as he walked home from work. Police reported the incident involved a robbery.

He was arrested on an unrelated drug charge Wednesday, and police charged him in the murder on Thursday. According to court documents, Barahona waived his rights and provided a statement admitting he had stabbed Wang.