Former FBI most-wanted fugitive sentenced in MS-13 gang case

NEWARK, N.J. – An MS-13 gang member who once was on the FBI’s top 10 list of most-wanted fugitives has received a 25-year sentence for killing a man on behalf of the gang and agreeing that a conspirator would commit multiple violent acts.

Walter Yovany Gomez was sentenced Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty in June to racketeering conspiracy.

A 2013 indictment charged Gomez and another man with the fatal beating and stabbing of a fellow gang member suspected of associating with a rival gang in Plainfield, New Jersey. According to the FBI, the victim’s throat was slit, he was struck in the head with a bat and stabbed 17 times with a screwdriver.

Gomez’s accomplice was convicted of the crime.

Gomez fled New Jersey but was captured in northern Virginia in 2017.