A Montgomery County, Maryland, man accused of shooting another man 27 times, gunning down the woman he was with, then driving off while sitting on top of his body was found guilty Thursday of two counts of murder.
After a four-day trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court, a jury found 26-year-old Kaloyan Stoev guilty on two counts of second-degree murder and several weapons charges in the January 2025 shooting deaths of 26-year-old Marcell Hebron and 27-year-old Leilani Marroquin.
Stoev told detectives that during the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 2025, he had plans to buy two ounces of marijuana from Hebron, who he had known for years.
Stoev got in the back of Hebron’s BMW at 2 Research Court in Rockville. Hebron was in the driver’s seat and Marroquin was sitting in the passenger seat.
During their interaction, Stoev began shooting at Hebron with two handguns, ultimately striking him 27 times from inside and outside the vehicle, according to prosecutors.
Marroquin ran from the vehicle, and Stoev shot her five times from the side and from behind, prosecutors said. She fell to the ground, where she was later found, dead.
Stoev later told police he saw Hebron pulling a gun from his waistband, which resulted in him firing the shots. As he was getting out of the car, he said he saw Marroquin retrieving a gun from the glove box and fired several times.
He then sat on top of Hebron’s dead body and drove the BMW to Shady Grove Road at Research Boulevard, where the car stopped running, prosecutors said. He ran toward a hotel, where he was renting a room, and detectives arrested him once he got inside.
Hebron’s body was found inside the disabled car hours later; Marroquin was found in the hotel parking lot.
“The senseless and violent loss of the victims has left two families in our community devastated. We express our deepest, heartfelt condolences to them,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a news release.
Stoev faces a maximum of 150 years in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 28.