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Rockville, MD – In the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, before the Honorable David Lease, a jury has found defendant Abraham Luna Perez, 28, of Silver Spring, guilty of voluntary manslaughter for the death of 19-year-old Diego Edilberto Borja Cardona. The jury returned its verdict on August 4, 2026.
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A sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 27, 2026. Luna Perez faces a maximum of ten years in prison.
On October 22, 2024, officers with Montgomery County Police responded to a report of a deceased person in a wooded area behind a bus stop in the 9300 block of Piney Branch Road. The Medical Examiner determined the victim had been struck a minimum of four times. An autopsy determined the manner of death to be homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the head. The victim was the defendant’s brother-in-law. The two men lived together with a third, juvenile roommate in an apartment located on Quebec Terrace, directly behind the area where the body was found. The three individuals were inside the Quebec Terrace apartment on October 19, 2024. The roommate witnessed a brief altercation between the victim and defendant and says the victim then went to sleep in his room. The roommate received a text message from Luna Perez stating that Luna Perez planned to kill the victim. He later saw Luna Perez enter the victim’s bedroom and heard several loud noises, after which the defendant exited the bedroom and told the roommate that the victim was dead. Luna Perez told the roommate to help him move Borja Cardona’s body to the area behind the nearby bus stop, where it was discovered three days later.
Deputy State’s Attorney Ryan Wechsler and Assistant State’s Attorney Kimberly Cissel are prosecuting this matter.
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