A reputed leader of a clique of the MS-13 gang was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of a 16-year-old fellow gang member lured to a New York park and stabbed more than 30 times.
Melvi Amador-Rios, 32, learned his fate in a federal courtroom in Brooklyn for the murder of Julio Vasquez, as well as a shooting that left another teen paralyzed and other senseless gang violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
He was also sentenced to 80 years in prison for four robberies, 40 years in prison for ordering a nonfatal shooting and 38 years in prison for firearms charges, to run consecutively, prosecutors said.
In a statement, Vasquez’s mother, Bertha Palaguachi, said she can’t accept that she lost her son to such a brutal death, the New York Daily News reported.
“They didn’t kill an animal,” she said. “They killed my son, and I want justice. I hope they stay and rot in jail.”
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement that Amador-Rios will deservedly serve a life sentence.
“Today’s sentence reflects justice for the heinous and senseless nature of the defendant’s crimes and the terror he inflicted on his victims, their families and the community,” he said.
Amador-Rios killed Vasquez, a low-level MS-13 member, in 2017 because he was associating with members of the rival 18th Street gang, a gang violation, authorities said. Vasquez was killed when he failed to kill another gang member who had broken gang rules, too, prosecutors said.
Melvi Amador-Rios (Mug shot from U.S. Attorney’s Office)
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Vasquez was lured to a wooded area of Alley Pond Park, where Josue Leiva and Luis Rivas stabbed him more than 30 times, authorities said.
A bird watcher found Vasquez’s body days later. Leiva and Rivas pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including Vasquez’s murder, officials said. They are awaiting sentencing.
In October 2016, Amador-Rios ordered an attack that left Luis Serrano, then 16, paralyzed. Three younger gang members beat Serrano, shot him in the head, and tried to shoot him a second time, all because they thought he was a gang rival. But the gun malfunctioned, and the shooters fled, leaving Serrano for dead.
“After they shot me, I dragged myself across the floor and tried to ask for help,” said a statement by Serrano, who was at Amador-Rios’ sentencing in his wheelchair, the Daily News reported. “I was dragging myself using my chin. When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me how I wasn’t going to be able to move. I started to cry.”
The shooters were arrested and pleaded guilty in the case, prosecutors said.
Amador-Rios was convicted of racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering in the fatal stabbing of Vasquez. He was also convicted of attempted murder in aid of racketeering, assault in aid of racketeering, firearms offenses and four counts of robbery.
Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Moore took the defendant to task, telling jurors then in her closing statement that he was the one “signing the death warrants,” the New York Post reported.
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