A “high-ranking” member of the Sur 13 gang has been convicted of nine felony count related to a 2015 murder and a drug trafficking operation run from his jail cell.
Elijah Rodriguez has been convicted of felony murder, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, conspiracy to traffic in methamphetamine, aggravated battery, criminal gang activity, influencing a witness and aggravated assault.
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The murder victim, Kevin Orlando Rivera, had been shot and robbed of “a large amount of methamphetamine” two weeks before his death, the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office said. Hours before his death, Rivera was allegedly involved in a “physical altercation” with Rodriguez in a Norcross hotel. In that same time frame, Rodriguez was allegedly trying to purchase a gun from another Sur 13 member in order to “ride on” Rivera (harm or kill, in gang slang, according to the DA’s office).
Rodriguez was arrested and charged with Rivera’s killing in July 2015. While Rodriguez awaited trial at the Gwinnett County Detention Center, he attacked a fellow inmate in an attempt to prevent the inmate from testifying against him, the DA’s office said. Rodriguez also arranged “multi-kilogram methamphetamine transactions” from jail, the DA’s office said.
Prosecutors showed the jury Rodriguez’s many gang-related tattoos at trial, including symbols of specific gang subsets and a tattoo that says “f-- da law.”
After a trial lasting more than a week, the jury convicted Rodriguez on nine charges and acquitted him of two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, one count of malice murder and one count of felony murder.
Judge Karen Beyers gave Rodriguez the maximum sentence: life in prison without parole, plus 135 years.
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