A man accused of killing eight people after opening fire at a bar rented by a rival drug trafficker in northern Puerto Rico was found guilty on Friday following a retrial.
A federal jury also found Alexis Candelario Santana guilty of killing an unborn child and injuring 19 other people in the October 2009 mass shooting in which Candelario’s godson and cousin were killed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that 17 different weapons were used in the shooting, with more than 330 shell casings found at the bar called La Tómbola in Toa Baja.
Authorities said that Candelario and others opened fire on people gathered outside the bar as they celebrated its grand opening and then entered the building and continued shooting.
AFTER 125 YEARS, PUERTO RICO REMAINS IN A PECULIAR POLITICAL LIMBO UNDER US CONTROL
Candelario, who also was convicted of 40 counts of drug trafficking, is scheduled to be sentenced in October. His attorneys said they would appeal Friday’s conviction.
Candelario previously had been found guilty in the case and received a life sentence in 2013, but an appeals court ordered a new trial after finding a judge erred in a proceeding.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Candelario once ran a drug trafficking operation in Toa Baja from 1993 to 2003, despite being arrested in 2002 on various murder charges. He was released from prison in February 2009 and was arrested in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2009, two months after the mass shooting.
