Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess announced today that Cristian Pleitez-Tejada, 23, of Edgewater was sentenced to 30 years of active incarceration for the second degree murder of Jose Salvador Mancia Aguilar.
The defendant entered a guilty plea on October 14, 2021.
“The defendant had an ongoing disagreement with the victim and sought him out at a local restaurant to attack him, unprovoked and without warning. He then fled the state so he wouldn’t be caught. I am grateful that the judge recognized the defendant’s dangerousness as a verified gang member, and sentenced him to the maximum sentence for this crime,” said State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess. “It’s my hope that this outcome provides the victim’s family and friends some peace as they have suffered a terrible loss.”
Assistant State’s Attorneys Glen Neubauer and Brian Pritchard prosecuted this case on behalf of the citizens of Anne Arundel County.
On October 4, 2020, the Anne Arundel County Police and Fire Departments responded to the El Norteno Grill located in the 600 block of Crain Highway North in Glen Burnie for a report of a stabbing. When they arrived, they found the victim, later identified as Jose Salvador Mancia Aguilar, bleeding profusely on the ground near the front door of the establishment. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled Mancia Aguilar’s manner of death a homicide. Anne Arundel County Police Department’s Homicide Unit arrived to the restaurant where they obtained and reviewed surveillance video.
The video showed the victim walking with a young Hispanic male toward the rear exterior of the business around 7:45 p.m. The defendant can be seen on the video wearing what appears to be a hooded North Face jacket. Fifteen minutes later, at 8 p.m., the video shows the victim stumble and collapse at the bar’s main entrance. Seconds after that, the suspect wearing the North Face jacket can be seen on video pulling up his hood and running away from the rear of the bar. A witness told the detectives that they heard the victim and defendant engaged in an argument shortly before Mancia Aguilar was stabbed.
Further investigation found that the argument between the two men stemmed from an undetermined incident in their mutual home country of El Salvador. The defendant was a validated member of the MS-13 gang.
During the investigation, detectives received information that the defendant had stabbed and killed Mancia Aguilar and planned to flee the United States.
On October 22, 2020, the defendant was apprehended by FBI agents in Arkansas. Following his arrest, detectives advised the defendant of his rights and interviewed him about Mancia Aguilar’s murder.
During the interview, the defendant confessed to stabbing Mancia Aguilar with a knife he was carrying in his pocket.
The Honorable Robert Thompson presided over the case.
