Three months after a Gaithersburg man was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the June 2017 murders of two Northwest High School seniors, the trial of three other men accused in the killings is underway this week in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville.
With Judge David A. Boynton presiding, Assistant State’s Attorney Jessica Hall during Friday’s opening statements accused the three men of ambushing and executing Northwest seniors Shadi Ali Najjar, 17, and Artem Ziberov, 18.
“These boys were lured to Gallery Court, they were ambushed, and they were executed,” Hall said. “Those were the actions of four men—these three men and another. The men who executed and slaughtered these two boys are Edgar Garcia-Gaona, sitting in the back, Roger Garcia, in front of him, and Rony A. Galicia, sitting over here, and a man named Jose Canales-Yanez.”
According to Montgomery County police, at about 10:25 p.m. on June 5, 2017, Najjar and Ziberov were shot to death in Najjar’s blue Honda Civic while parked in a remote residential area in the 8200 block of Gallery Court in Montgomery Village. In all, between 30 and 31 rounds were fired at the two teens, who were pronounced dead by police at the scene, according to Hall.
Jose “O” Ovilson Canales-Yanez, 26, of Gaithersburg, was found guilty in January of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, along with other charges, for what prosecutors described as execution-style killings.
Roger Garcia, 21, of Germantown, his half-brother Edgar Garcia-Gaona, 25, of Gaithersburg, and an acquaintance, Rony A. Galicia, 26, of Germantown are on trial for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other felonies associated with the crimes.
Hall argued that a decision in 2016 by Najjar to steal instead of purchase marijuana from Canales-Yanez’s pregnant wife led to the revenge killing of the two teens.
During that incident, Najjar grabbed a book bag that contained marijuana from Canales-Yanez’s wife who was five months pregnant at the time. As he drove away, he clipped the woman’s foot with his car, resulting in her hospitalization, according to Hall.
Hall said Najjar’s interest in selling extra tickets to the high school graduation helped the four men set up the murders. Only days before the murders, Garcia, a former Northwest High School graduate, had connected with Najjar on Snapchat.
Najjar was meeting Garcia on Gallery Court to sell him a ticket, Hall said. Ziberov was with Najjar because the two had been selling other extra tickets that evening.
“When the men got to the car, there was not one occupant, but two, in the car,” Hall said. “That conspiracy grew to kill Artem as well.”
The prosecution said Canales-Yanez, Garcia, Garcia-Gaona and Galicia were close friends at the time.
The first opening statement from the defense came from attorney Isabelle Raquin, who is representing Rony Galicia. Raquin said her client was not at the scene the night of the murder, and that the two other defendants on trial—Edgar Garcia and Roger Garcia—and Calanes-Yanez were involved in the murders.
“Rony did not commit murder,” Raquin said. “He did not shoot the boys, he did not conspire in the planning, preparation and execution of these boys. Rony did not take part in the killing of Artem and Shadi, but three other people did. Those people are Canales-Yanez, Edgar Garcia and Roger Garcia. The three of them together murdered Shadi and Artem.”
Raquin said Canales-Yanez planned the murder, Edgar had the potential to make it happen and Roger was the pawn—the connection to Shadi because they had attended Northwest High School.
In his opening statement, Gary Gerstenfield, representing Roger Garcia, said it didn’t make sense to group his client, Roger Garcia, whom he said was 17 at the time of the crime, with his older brothers and his brother’s friends who are in their 20s, because he didn’t hang out with them.
“Roger was 17, all the other people are in their 20s,” Gerstenfield said.
According to court records and a county police press statement, Garcia was 19 when the murders occurred.
Gerstenfield said the prosecution’s claim that evidence will show Garcia communicated with Najjar on the night of the killings is not reliable. Gerstenfield said Garcia’s phone was being used by somebody else.
“The connection you’ll hear is that his Snapchat was used to contact Shadi, but there’s no evidence of who that person is,” Gerstenfield said. “Somebody befriended Shadi, using his cell phone, but we don’t know who. The supposition is that it is Roger, but that’s a big hole.”
Gerstenfield said there is no evidence showing his client was involved.
“You know what you know, and you have stories,” Gerstenfield said. “This case involves not Roger, it involves Edgar—Roger’s older brother—it involves Edgar’s best friends . . . . ‘O’ has a motive—he wants to get revenge for his wife; you know who his friends are.”
Ronald A. Gottlieb, a public defender representing Edgar Garcia-Gaona, asked the jury to determine guilt or innocence based on facts, not relationships, friendships and associations.
He said there was no DNA evidence connecting his client to the murder scene and that the prosecution’s key witness, Gottlieb claims, was paid $5,000 by the Montgomery County police to continue as a witness.
“That’s bought and sold testimony. You have to consider that in judging her credibility,” Gottlieb said.
When asked about Gottlieb’s assertions, Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office spokesman Ramon Korionoff said in an email Tuesday morning that the office was unable to confirm whether or not a payment may have been made, or why.
Gottlieb asked the jury to disregard the prosecution’s assertion that four people are being tried for one crime.
“His DNA is not found,” Gottlieb said. “There’s no Snapchat from Edgar regarding the meeting that night. Follow the evidence, but don’t base your verdict of guilt by relationship, friendships and associations.”
Hall said all four of the men charged in the case were together at a trailer before the killing and that is the heart of the conspiracy. She also said a female witness, romantically involved with Garcia, said Garcia-Gaona confessed his role in the killings to her.
“This family is not just men, there are women involved,” Hall said. “Two women who were romantically involved with Roger Garcia. One of them said Edgar confessed to her that he participated in the murder and did it with ‘O’.”
Hall said both women talked to county police, and while they were reluctant and afraid, everything they said will be corroborated with forensic evidence.
The trial resumed Monday.
