Nassau County officials say two MS-13 gang members have plead guilty in the August 2017 machete murder of a man in Uniondale.
Officials say Luis Alejandro Varela, 24, of Mineola, and William Reyes-Fuentes, 27, of Uniondale, pleaded guilty on Friday to second-degree murder charges and conspiracy in the second degree.
Varela is due back in court on August 9 where he is expected to be sentenced to up to 21 years to life in prison.
Reyes-Fuentes is also due back in court on August 9, where he is expected to be sentenced to up to 20 years to life in prison.
“For
more than a year, Carlos Rivas-Majano’s family was left to speculate
what had happened to him, until his body was recovered in a sump by the
Meadowbrook Parkway,” said District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “The
defendants – Luis Alejandro Varela and William Reyes-Fuentes – were part
of an MS-13 crew that lured the victim into that wooded area, beat him
and killed him. We will continue to work with every law enforcement
partner to rid our communities of this dangerous gang.”
DA
Donnelly said that on Aug. 11, 2017, Rivas-Majano told a family member
that he was on his way home from a deli in Uniondale and never returned
home.
Rivas-Majano,
a perceived enemy of the gang, was lured into the woods near the
Meadowbrook Parkway and Glen Curtiss Boulevard in Uniondale, where he
was hacked and stabbed to death with machetes.