A member of the international criminal group, Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, pleaded guilty in federal court May 31 to racketeering charges.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice news release, Jonathan Hernandez, 24, participated in the April 29, 2016, murder of Oscar Acosta; the Jan. 28, 2016, murder of Michael Johnson; an Aug. 10, 2016, attempted murder; and for planning how to distribute cocaine and marijuana. The case was tried by U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields.
“In service to a violent gang and without regard for human life, the defendant and his MS-13 cohorts murdered two people, attempted to murder a third victim and distributed dangerous narcotics,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in the release. “With today’s guilty plea, this office and our law enforcement partners continue to dismantle MS-13, gang member by gang member, bringing them to justice for their horrendous crimes, and we will not rest until our communities are safe from gang violence. Furthermore, it is our hope that the families of the victims find some consolation that Hernandez has been held to account for his crimes.”
According to the release, Johnson was identified by members of MS-13 as a Bloods street gang rival at the Jocorena Deli in Brentwood. Johnson was then lured to a secluded area where Hernandez and other MS-13 gang members struck, stabbed and hacked Johnson with a bat, knife and machete, respectively.
Acosta was reportedly murdered by Hernandez and MS-13 members because of their suspicion Acosta was associating with a rival gang called 18th Street, the release reported. Acosta was lured to a secluded area near a Brentwood elementary school where he was beaten unconscious with tree limbs. They then drove Acosta near an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Brentwood, drug him to the woods while he was still alive and took turns hacking him with a machete until he died.
Hernandez, along with another MS-13 members, reportedly attempted to kill individuals they harbored suspicion were in rival gangs in Brentwood. The duo approached a house armed on Lukens Avenue where the suspected individuals were standing outside. The MS-13 members fired numerous shots at them. No one was hit, but a stray bullet struck the headboard of a bed in the neighbors house where the neighbor was sleeping.
“It is evident by these incomprehensible crimes, that MS-13 members have zero regard for human life and their violence has no limits,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said, according to the release. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to decimate this transnational gang, and I thank those involved in this case for their tireless efforts to hold this individual accountable for his heinous actions.”
Additionally, Hernandez pleaded guilty to participating in a drug distribution conspiracy. He confessed he and other Sailors clique members conspired to distribute cocaine and marijuana for MS-13 financial gain.
According to the release, Peace, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll, Harrison and the Suffolk County Police shared the guilty plea.
The release states Hernandez faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
