Two men were convicted Monday for the murder of two Maryland teenagers, killed the night before their high school graduations in Montgomery County.
Rony Galicia and Edgar Garcia-Gaona were found guilty on six charges each, including murder and conspiracy to commit murder, in the deaths of 17-year-old Shadi Adi Najjar and 18-year-old Artem Ziberov in June 2017.
Prosecutors said Galicia and Garcia-Gaona were two of four men who led the teens to their deaths.
"They were being lured to their own executions," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said at a news conference at Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville.
The fathers of both young victims spoke Monday.
"Losing a child is already a tragedy. An only child is even worse," said Shadi Adi Najjar's father, Adi Najjar.
Najjar and Ziberov were found shot to death on June 5, 2017, in a blue Honda Civic in Montgomery Village. Both teens were set to graduate from Northwest High School the next day. The teens were set to meet with Garcia-Gaona's brother Roger Garcia, 20, to reportedly sell him an extra ticket to the high school graduation ceremony, police said. Instead, police say Garcia, Garcia-Gaona, Galicia and a fourth suspect, Jose Canales-Yanez, met the teens and opened fire.
Police said Najjar was shot four times and Ziberov 10 times.
"Everyone who participated in this crime was a shooter," McCarthy said.
Police have said revenge was a motive in Najjar's killing, after they learned during their investigation that Najjar was rumored to have committed a robbery in late 2016. Najjar's family disputed the allegation.
Galicia and Garcia-Gaona are set to be sentenced January 22. Prosecutors requested life without parole.
CORRECTION (Nov. 19, 2018, 4:28 p.m.) A previous version of this story erroneously stated that Galicia and Garcia-Gaona had been sentenced. They were convicted Monday and are set to be sentenced in January.
