United States v. Machado-Erazo
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
986 F. Supp. 2d 39 (2013)

- Written by Sara Rhee, JD
Facts
Noe Machado-Erazo and Jose Martinez-Amaya (defendants) were active members of a gang known as MS-13. MS-13 operated transnationally and had approximately 5,000 members in the greater District of Columbia metropolitan area. Machado-Erazo and Martinez-Amaya were part of a subgroup of MS-13 known as the Normandie clique, which operated out of Maryland. At times, Machado-Erazo and Martinez-Amaya held leadership roles within the organization. A jury found Machado-Erazo and Martinez-Amaya guilty of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, based on the predicate crimes of murder, extortion, and obstruction of justice. Machado-Erazo and Martinez-Amaya challenged the guilty verdicts, arguing that they could not be liable for the crimes of their alleged coconspirators from other MS-13 cliques because there was no evidence that they agreed to or were involved in such crimes. Machado-Erazo and Martinez-Amaya argued that the prosecution had established the existence of several independent conspiracies within MS-13 rather than a single, overarching conspiracy. Machado-Erazo and Martinez-Amaya filed motions for a judgment of acquittal and a new trial.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Lamberth, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.