Gang member gets life in murders of mom, tot

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A 22-year-old reputed gang member from Baldwin was sentenced to life in prison Monday for his part in the murders of a 19-year-old woman and her son in 2010, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

According to a statement released by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, Juan Garcia, also known as Cruzito, received the sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco in Central Islip.

Garcia, also of Inwood, whom authorities said was a member of the notorious MS-13 street gang, was accused of fatally shooting Vanessa Argueta and her son, Diego Torres, 2, on Feb. 5, 2010.

According to U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers, Garcia and Rene Mendez Mejia, also an MS-13 member, shot Argueta in the chest and head, respectively; a third MS-13 member Adalberto Ariel Guzman, shot Diego twice in the head. 

After committing the murders, Garcia and his co-conspirators fled to El Salvador, the authorities said.  Guzman and Mejia were arrested in May 2010, but Garcia remained a fugitive for four years until March 2014, when he was placed on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List. At that time, authorities said, he surrendered to law enforcement authorities in Nicaragua, waived extradition, and was returned to the United States for prosecution.  He pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 2014.

The sentence was announced by Capers and Diego Rodriguez, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office.

“The MS-13 is infamous for committing senseless and brutal acts of violence, but, even for the MS-13, the murders of Vanessa Argueta and Diego Torres were particularly depraved and callous,” Capers said.  “However, as a result of the tenacious investigation and prosecution jointly conducted by this Office and our law enforcement partners, Garcia and his co-conspirators have been captured, convicted, and justly sentenced for cold-bloodedly executing a young mother and her two-year-old child.” 

Garcia and other MS-13 members, including MS-13 leader Heriberto Martinez, Guzman, and Mejia plotted to kill Argueta because they believed she had disrespected the MS-13 by sending rival gang members to attack Garcia, the statement from the U.S. attorney’s office said. 

Martinez was convicted in March 2013, after a six-week trial, in connection with the Argueta murder, as well as the March 6, 2010, murder of Nestor Moreno in Hempstead, and the March 17, 2010, murder of Mario Alberto Canton Quijada in Far Rockaway, Queens. He later was sentenced to life in prison, plus 60 years. Guzman was convicted on charges relating to the Argueta and Torres murders in September 2013, following a three-week trial, and later sentenced to life in prison, plus 35 years.  Mejia pleaded guilty to the Argueta and Torres murders and is awaiting sentencing.