Two members of the notorious MS-13 gang have been found guilty of a brutal murder that occurred in Lake Forest, leaving a man nearly decapitated and his girlfriend injured in a stabbing frenzy. The convictions came down on Tuesday for the two gang members, who staged an ambush on a 25-year-old Marcos Morales while he and his girlfriend relaxed in a hot tub. According to the Orange County District Attorney's office, the vicious attack took place in the early morning hours of October 1, 2018.
The convicted individuals, Jose Rafael Andrademembreno and Edwin Diaz, while executing the attack, reportedly used machete-style knives to deliver over 18 stab wounds to Morales, partially decapitating his head and inflicting fatal injuries. Laughing as they fled the crime scene, these perpetrators were described in trial testimony that captured the grisly details of the assault. Despite extensive interviews with over 50 neighbors, no one claimed to have witnessed the attack that echoed with screams of MS-13 allegiance by the assailants.
Andrademembreno and Diaz were ultimately convicted of one felony count of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, among other charges, facing life without parole at a sentencing scheduled for January 23, 2026. In a statement obtained by the Orange County District Attorney's office, District Attorney Todd Spitzer expressed the monstrous nature of the crime, underlining the "callousness and calculation" involved in Morales's murder.
A third defendant, Xiomara Berrios, implicated in the crime as Diaz's sister, has struck a plea deal for second-degree murder in exchange for her testimony. At the time of the murder, she had been identified as letting her boyfriend know of Morales's location and was later captured, Imprinting Morales's blood on her shoes and on a bit of clothing owned by Andrademembreno. Diaz was picked up days later, caught trying to wash away evidence of the crime, inserting bloody clothes into a washing machine upon losing his freedom to the news of his sister and her boyfriend's arrest. Senior Deputy District Attorneys Richard Majchrzak and James Applegate of the Gang Unit prosecuted the case, culminating in the recent convictions.
