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Last month, Edar Ventura - also known as Trauma and Despiadado - pleaded guilty during jury selection to two counts of murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon. On Tuesday, April 23, he was sentenced to a term of between 32 years to life in prison.
According to Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas, on Dec. 13, 2016, Ventura and co-defendant David Maldonado, both MS-13 gang members, “sought to kill a perceived enemy of MS-13.”
The two proceeded to ride on bicycles to Fenimore Avenue in Uniondale, where they found their target, who was inside a car. Singas said that Maldonado ordered the perceived enemy out of the car, displayed gang signs and yelled “La Mara,” at which point he fired several rounds, striking an unintended victim, Alexon Moya, in the head.
Moya was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead two days later on Dec. 15. According to Singas, Maldonado was seeking to kill his intended target to gain greater status in MS-13. He has since pleaded guilty to murder.
On Aug. 11, 2017, Carlos Rivas-Majano told a family member that he was on his way home from a deli in Uniondale and never returned home, Singas said. Rivas-Majano, another 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. The victim’s body was recovered on Aug. 29 that year.
Four co-defendants, in addition to Ventura, also alleged members of MS-13, were apprehended and their cases are pending. The investigation is ongoing, Singas said.
According to Singas, as part of his plea, Ventura admitted to being a member of MS-13, in the Downtown Criminals clique. He was arrested on Dec. 18, 2017, by members of the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad and has been detained since.
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