After a second trial, a man identified as Alexis Candelario accused of opening fire at a club owned by a rival drug dealer in northern Puerto Rico, killing eight people, was found guilty on Friday.
A federal jury additionally found Alexis Candelario Santana guilty of killing an unborn child and injuring 19 others in the October 2009 mass shooting in which Alexis Candelario’s godson and cousin were slain.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the assault included 17 different types of firearms, and more than 330 shot casings were discovered at the La Tómbola bar in Toa Baja.
The bar’s grand opening celebrations were interrupted by shots being fired inside the establishment by Alexis Candelario and others, according to the authorities.
The punishment for Alexis Candelario, who was found guilty of 40 counts of drug trafficking, is due in October. Alexis Candelario’s lawyers declared they would challenge the verdict from last Friday.
In the past, Alexis Candelario had been found guilty in the case and was given a life sentence in 2013, but an appeals court decided that the judge had made a mistake and ordered a fresh trial.
Despite being jailed on numerous murder charges in 2002, Alexis Candelario ran a drug-trafficking organization in Toa Baja from 1993 to 2003, according to the US Attorney’s Office. He was released from prison in February 2009 and captured two months later in the US Virgin Islands.
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