A federal grand jury returned an indictment Aug. 29 charging three Reston men with murder in the course of a drug trafficking crime.
According to allegations in the indictment, Fredy Alfaro, 28, Jimmie McCray, 34, and Charles Forbes, 28, murdered Michael Cooker in Fairfax County on April 18, 2018, in furtherance of a conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
According to the indictment, the defendants were engaged in a conspiracy in which they obtained marijuana from California and distributed it in the Eastern District of Virginia. Alfaro, who was in California, was in a dispute with Cooker, who was in the Eastern District of Virginia. Alfaro placed a call to McCray indicating that Cooker needed to be taken care of. McCray gave that message, along with a gun, to Forbes who drove Cooker to a wooded area of Fairfax Station where Forbes shot and killed Cooker.
ALL THREE DEFENDANTS are charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and use of a firearm in connection with conspiracy to distribute marijuana resulting in death. Both McCray and Forbes are charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. If convicted, they each face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison or death. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Mark R. Herring, Attorney General of Virginia, and Timothy M. Dunham, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, and Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Ben’Ary, along with Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc J. Birnbaum and Rachael C. Tucker are prosecuting the case.
THIS CASE was investigated by the Washington Field Office’s Violent Crime Safe Streets Task Force, which is composed of FBI Special Agents, and task force officers from the Arlington County Police, the Alexandria City Police, the Fairfax County Police, the Prince William County Police, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office, the Leesburg Police Department, the Herndon Police Department, the Fairfax City Police, and the Vienna Police, and works in partnership with the USMS. The task force worked cooperatively and extensively with the Fairfax County Police on this investigation. The task force is charged with identifying, investigating, disrupting and bringing to justice the most violent and egregious criminal enterprises and actors impacting the National Capital Region.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.