A member of the Salvadorian gang MS-13 in Long Island, New York, was given 35 years in prison for the murder of another Salvadorian national, also a member of the gang, whom they suspected had turned police informant. Federal Judge Leonard Wexler from the federal district court of Central Islip, New York, imposed the sentence on June 27.
Edwin Henríquez, 26, known as "The Joker," declared himself guilty of killing Olivia Meléndez Mendoza, 16, whose body was found in a wooded area of Old Westbury in September 2004 on the same day that the body of Genaro Venegas, 24, another gang member, was found in Bethpage.
Different factions of the gang that, according to the authorities, were trying to purge their ranks of suspected informants killed both gang members. According to the FBI and local police, finding the two bodies on the same day was a coincidence.
"The sentence makes clear that gang members will pay a high price for these cold and calculated acts of violence," said Loretta Lynch, attorney general for the Eastern District of New York.
According to his guilty plea and other documents previously presented in the case, Henríquez, who was 19 years old at the time of the murder, and other MS-13 gang members in Long Island, decided to kill Meléndez because they believed she did not follow the rules of the gang. Following their plan, Henríquez lied to Meléndez to take her to a wooded area of Old Westbury, where he shot her once in the head.
On April 12, 2011, Judge Wexler sentenced José Recinos, another MS-13 member also known as "Psycho" or "Little Psycho," to 20 years in prison for collaboration and complicity with Henríquez in the murder, according to an FBI report.
"Olivia Meléndez Mendoza had her whole life in front of her," said Federal Attorney Richard Donoghue, who along with assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham brought the case to court. "Edwin Henríquez shot her in the head from behind," just because he was an MS-13 gang member.
Norman Trabulus, Henríquez' attorney from Manhattan, declared after the conviction, "it was a just sentence," reported Newsday.
This past December, Wilver López, 29, who lived in Central Islip and who was the head of one of the MS-13 gangs in the Brentwood-Central Islip area, was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip to 35 years for killing Venegas.
La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, is a violent gang whose members are immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. According to the FBI, La Mara Salvatrucha is the most prominent gang in Long Island, outside New York City, including members in Queens.
The Office of the Attorney General of New York has arrested more than 1,230 members of MS-13 accused of murder, possession of guns, drug trafficking and robbery, among other charges.
