HEADNOTE: Mario Rodriguez Gutierrez v. State of Maryland, No. 98 ...

Gutierrez told Alvarado-Pineda to stop in front of the house. Then, according to Alvarado-
Pineda, a member of the party insulted Gutierrez for representing that he belonged to MS-13
and Gutierrez responded by pulling out a gun and firing four shots into the crowd.
The prosecution also introduced pictures from Gutierrez’s MySpace webpage. One
of Gutierrez’s fellow passengers, Hector Tirado, testified for the State and identified
Gutierrez’s gestures as those used by members of MS-13. He identified Gutierrez as the
shooter that night. A transcript of Tirado’s grand jury testimony, in which he claimed that
Gutierrez shot Quintanilla to gain entry into MS-13, was also admitted into evidence.
The prosecution then called Sergeant George Norris, Supervisor of the Prince
George’s County Gang Unit, as an expert witness “in the area of MS-13 and gangs in
general.” Norris provided jurors with an overview of the MS-13 culture. He began by
explaining that “MS-13” stands for “Mara Salvatrucha,” with “mara” meaning gang or group,
“salva” referring to El Salvador, and “trucha” translating as “watch out” or “look out.” The
13 in the gang’s name, he testified, is “indicative of their alliance with the Mexican Mafia[.]”
Norris also described how prospective members are inducted, or “jumped,” into MS-13,
which involves a 13 second beating by four or five gang members. He identified Langley
Park, the location of the apartment where Gutierrez, Alvarado-Pineda, and Tirado were
congregated before driving to Riverdale, as an MS-13 stronghold. Riverdale (the scene of
the crime), on the other hand, was a predominantly Mexican neighborhood and “[t]he gangs
within that community are more of the Mexican-based gangs as opposed to MS-13, which
is predominantly Central American based.” Thus, Riverdale is “an area where rival gang
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