A teenager who sought to avenge the death of her boyfriend and told a 15-year-old girl she would “see her in hell” before stabbing her 19 times pleaded guilty Monday to the brutal slaying that raised the spotlight on MS-13’s presence in the suburbs of the nation’s capital.
Venus Romero Iraheta, who was 17 at the time of the January 2017 murder, pleaded guilty in a Virginia courtroom as an adult in the murder of 15-year-old Damaris Alexandra Reyes Rivas.
Iraheta, now 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, abduction and criminal street gang participation. She faces a maximum of life in prison plus 20 years when she is sentenced on May 25.
Reyes Rivas, who was a student at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg, was taken from Montgomery County to Lake Accotink Park in Fairfax County where she was stabbed with a knife and jabbed with a stick by a large group of MS-13 members. Her body was eventually discovered after it was dumped near an industrial park in the Springfield area of Fairfax County.
Authorities said Reyes Rivas’ murder was believed to be in revenge for the death of Christian Sosa Rivas, who was found washed up on the banks of the Potomac River on Jan. 12.
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