A teenage boy charged with stabbing a classmate to death in the parking lot of a shopping center in Alexandria, Virginia, last year was convicted of murder on Tuesday.
Ryan Vega was 16 years old when he pulled a knife during a fight at the Bradlee Shopping Center and killed Luis Mejia Hernandez, who was 18.
Video showed chaos as dozens of people fought.
Vega was convicted of second-degree murder and murder by a mob. His mother wiped tears from her eyes as the judge convicted her son.
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Mejia’s father left the courthouse and spoke about wanting to move on.
"Now what we are hoping for is whatever needs to happen for us to get a little peace in our lives. All of this was a tragedy, coming here, having to relive again what we saw,” Osmin Mejia said in Spanish.
After handing down the guilty verdicts, the judge called the murder a tragedy for both families and for anyone who has paid attention to repeated violence at the shopping center.
Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter said he hopes the convictions send a message to the community that violent crime will be taken seriously and prosecuted seriously.
“I’m glad that we can show the community that the police department did an outstanding job investigating it and we were able to get some serious convictions today that bring some accountability to the young man that committed this offense, and maybe that will send a little bit of a warning signal to others that they should not engage in violence at Bradlee or anywhere in the city,” he said.
The judge scheduled Vega’s sentencing for late September, saying he wants a thorough pre-sentence report to try to determine if Vega is a "gangbanger" or if he just got caught up in the crime.
Each of Vega's two convictions carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
