Teen's job was to empty victims' pockets and run. He got charged with their murders instead.

WEST PALM BEACH — In 2017, detectives traced a string of fatal shootings in Lake Worth Beach to six teenagers with ties to the gang MS-13. Though only one is suspected of pulling the trigger, three have pleaded guilty to murder — the latest earning a prison sentence a few years longer than he's been alive.

Natividad Umanzor Yanes, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of armed robbery Monday. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen sentenced him to 25 years in prison with credit for the five and a half years he has spent in jail since his arrest.

Chris Haddad, his court-appointed defense attorney, said Yanes traveled alone to America from El Salvador in search of a better future. His proximity to the gang robbed him of it.

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Yanes is the third young man to plead guilty for the deaths of 33-year-old Lucio Velazquez-Morales and 25-year-old Octavio Sanches-Morales. Though none is the suspected gunman, all were charged with murder because of their participation in the robberies during which the shootings occurred.

Bullet casings at the scenes tied the two murders together, and the recorded confessions of six young men soon followed.

Teens described robbery-turned-murder in interviews with police

The plan was simple: Drive around Lake Worth Beach in search of Guatemalans to mug, and then make off like bandits. Guatemalans won't call the police if they aren't in the country legally, Victor Fuentes told detectives later.

Yanes' job was to empty their pockets. He said he'd fish around for a wallet or a phone while Fuentes, the oldest among them, held the victim at gunpoint.

Fuentes said he strayed from their plan twice, killing two of their targets during muggings one week apart. The first was Velazquez-Morales on Oct. 30, 2017, then Sanches-Morales on Nov. 5, 2017.

Fuentes told deputies that a demon made him pull the trigger. His co-defendant Victor Hernandez Castro said Fuentes believed Sanches-Morales belonged to a rival gang.

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When investigators asked Yanes to identify a photo of Fuentes, he began "visibly shaking and crying," a deputy wrote. Yanes said he was afraid of the older boy because he belonged to MS-13 and had threatened to hurt him and his family.

MS-13 is an international gang notorious for violent crime. Investigators with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said some of the six teens were members, and others were still being recruited.

"The grips of some of these gangs are so strong," Haddad said Tuesday. "I think there was a real element of duress involved."

The attorney said he planned to raise a duress defense had Yanes gone to trial, arguing that the teen committed the robberies under the threat of imminent harm to himself or others. But losing would have guaranteed that Yanes spends the rest of his life in prison, Haddad said.

He negotiated the plea deal with Assistant State Attorney Francine Edwards instead, agreeing to the lesser offense of second-degree murder.

Defense attorneys say deputies threatened Victor Fuentes into confessing

Victor Hernandez Castro, 22, was the first to plead guilty in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence in 2020. Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd sentenced Edwin Manzanarez, 22, to 22 years in prison next. Like Yanes, each man risked a lifetime behind bars had they fought the first-degree murder charge at trial and lost. None afforded a private defense attorney.

Henrry Cardoza, 21, Jorge Santos Cruz, 22, and Victor Fuentes, 25, each await trial on their own first-degree murder and armed robbery charges. The State Attorney's Office says it will seek the death penalty if Fuentes, who prosecutors believe was the gunman, is found guilty at trial.

Fuentes' attorneys have tried to keep his statements from being used against him, arguing that he only confessed to the killings after deputies threatened him and his family with deportation. Gillen questioned the credibility of the allegations and denied their request after an hours-long hearing. Fuentes and the attorneys were scheduled to appear in court Thursday to discuss the status of his case.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: MS-13 murders of undocumented Lake Worth men land third conviction