A 21-year-old Sterling man has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the slaying of a 19-year-old Centreville man at a Sterling party last summer.

Originally charged with second-degree murder, Guillermo Alonso Alvarado pleaded guilty Feb. 18 in the shooting death of Bryan Vidarte early July 19.

Guillermo Alonso Alvarado

As part of the plea, prosecutors dropped a charge against Alvarado of using a firearm while committing a felony.

During a preliminary hearing Sept. 10, witnesses described the events at the party July 18-19 in Lowes Island that led to Vidarte’s death. They also described why Alvarado and Rasheed Lamar Nurse, 28, of Herndon, were charged with second-degree murder for it.

Several witnesses described the tension between Alvarado and Vidarte throughout the party at a home on Tappahannock Place.

Alvarado was calling Vidarte a snitch, several said, for turning against two of Alvarado’s friends and testifying for the commonwealth in a recent criminal case.

Nurse, everyone agreed, was trying to keep peace between the two. But eventually, the argument moved outside to the street.

Investigator Kelly Poland of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office testified that she interviewed Nurse shortly after Vidarte’s death and he admitted to shooting Vidarte.

Poland gave the following account of what Nurse told her:

While he was standing in the middle of Lowes Island Boulevard early July 19, trying to keep the argument between Alvarado and Vidarte from escalating, Nurse heard Alvarado ask for the gun.

Vidarte hit Nurse in the face, knocking out one of his teeth and loosening another. After a second blow to the face, Nurse said he pulled out his gun and fired once without aiming, Poland said.

Nurse’s attorney, Matthew Snow, argued at the preliminary hearing that his client acted in self-defense when he shot Vidarte, since Vidarte had already thrown punches and knocked out Nurse’s tooth.

Snow said that for a second-degree murder charge, malice needed to be present, so without that malice, manslaughter was the most severe charge that could be sent to the grand jury.

Alvarado’s attorney, Daniel Lopez, argued at the preliminary hearing that since Nurse did not act with malice, the second-degree murder charge could not apply his client either.

A judge will sentence Alvarado June 7 at 2 p.m. Involuntary manslaughter is a Class 5 felony and carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Nurse, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in January, faces sentencing May 18 at 10 a.m.