20-Year-Old Sentenced 7 Years For Gang Activity
FREDERICK, Md. (WJZ) — Jose Castellano, 20, of Frederick, Md. entered a guilty plea to participation in a criminal gang and in the commission of a crime in association with the gang.
Castellano was sentenced to a straight sentence of 7 years and has an ICE detainer.
Frederick Police Department officers responded to the area of Hillcrest Drive for the report of a firearm discharge. Once they arrived, officers found a single victim with an apparent gunshot wound to the left foot.
The victim was taken to Meritus Medical Center and then Shock Trauma. He had a metal plate put into his ankle and bullet fragments were removed from his ankle.
The victim said that he saw his friend outside of the Latin Market being attacked by a group of men. He said he ran up to help him and ended up in the middle of the fight.
He saw a man, identified as the defendant, Jose "Chino" Castellano, take a handgun from another man and then shot the victim in the foot.
The victim identified Castellano and said he was familiar with the men involved in the melee as people who had been trying to get him to join a gang, but he had refused.
A video from the Latin Market shows Castellano shooting a firearm. Castellano fled the scene and was apprehended in February in Hempstead, New York.
The evidence showed that the shooting committed by Castellano was in association with his gang, the 18th street gang, and to further the gang's criminal activities.
A gang analyst with the Frederick Police Department was designated as an expert in the case and determined that Castellano is a validated gang member of the 18th Street gang based on his admission, gang tattoos on his body and prior altercations involving other 18th Street gang members and rival MS-13 gang members.
The shooting was a reaction to an assault and fight that occurred two days earlier between 18th Street and MS-13 gang members, who are rivals of each other.
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