Expelled Student Gets 2 Years in Gun Scheme

Accidental Discharge in Einstein High Restroom Led to April Lockdown, Arrests

A student who was recently expelled from Albert Einstein High School in Montgomery County was sentenced this week to two years in prison for his role in an April gun-dealing scheme that went awry, putting 1,600 students on lockdown for nearly three hours.

"You've simply got to understand the seriousness of that offense," Circuit Court Judge Ann S. Harrington said Monday, speaking to Raul E. Garcia during a hearing that also shed light on what prosecutors said were feuds involving Einstein students.

Prosecutors portrayed Garcia, 20, as an older student with connections to Mara Salvatrucha, the Latino gang known as MS-13, and as the driving force behind the attempted sale of four stolen guns. The transaction was disrupted when a student examining one of the guns in a second-floor restroom accidentally fired a round into a cinder block wall.

Under an agreement with prosecutors, Garcia pleaded guilty to a handgun possession charge, and four charges related to gun sales were dropped. The five younger students charged in the incident are being prosecuted as juveniles, and the status of their cases is not a matter of public record.

Garcia, who was in a wheelchair during the court hearing, lost most of the use of his legs and left arm after being shot three years ago, said his attorney, Alex Radice. A bullet remains lodged in his head, Radice said.

The experience changed Garcia, Radice said. In April, he said, Garcia was trying to collect the stolen guns to keep a feud between students from escalating to gunfire.

But prosecutor Victor Del Pino said school officials considered Garcia most responsible for the scheme and did not think that he left gang life after being wounded. Del Pino said James Fernandez, Einstein's principal, gave Garcia "every opportunity" and tried to help him, buying him Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and a battery for his wheelchair.

According to Del Pino, Fernandez "said he bought all the nonsense" that Garcia was out of MS-13 until he saw that one of Garcia's notebooks contained "MS-13 handwriting."

The events leading to the April incident at Einstein started several days earlier, when two 15-year-old students, a boy and a girl, came up with a plan to steal guns from a house and sell them for enough money to travel to New York, Del Pino said. About the same time, a feud between African American students and MS-13 members escalated to a fight just outside the school, according to Del Pino.

Garcia got wind of the burglary scheme ahead of time, Del Pino said. Garcia then told the 15-year-old boy that he wanted the guns or the proceeds from their sale, Del Pino said. At one point, speaking in Spanish, Garcia told the 15-year-old that he knew where his family was from in El Salvador and who is mother and girlfriend were and that he was not to lie to him, Del Pino said.

On April 8, after the burglary, the 15-year-old boy brought the four guns to Garcia, who took one of them, stuck it in his waistband and told him that he would give him money for it later, Del Pino said. Garcia instructed the student to bring the other three guns to school the next day to sell them, according to prosecutors.

On April 9, the 15-year-old boy and other students secretly met twice with possible buyers to look at the guns and discuss prices. In between, the 15-year-old spoke with Garcia inside the school, according to Del Pino, who said their movements were reconstructed from witness statements and images captured on 32 surveillance cameras.

Radice said his client never threatened the other students charged in the scheme, who he suggested had pinned the events on Garcia to escape harsher penalties.

Del Pino produced an image of one of Garcia's friends, which he said had come from a MySpace page. In the photo, he said, the friend held one of the stolen firearms, a handgun that Radice had said Garcia was trying to keep in a safe place. Del Pino asked the judge, "Does that look like he is trying to take the guns out of the hands of gang members?"