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A jury only debated for approximately two hours before finding Ruben Diego Avila Huicab guilty of shooting and killing a man in Hempstead on Tuesday, June 27, the Nassau County District Attorney announced.
According to trial testimony, Avila Huicab, a 33-year-old from North Carolina, drove to Ricardo Cardona’s Hempstead home on the night of January 12, 2021.
- Earlier Report: Man, Teen Charged For Fatal Shooting Of Long Island Man
He was accompanied in a second car by another defendant, who was 16 at the time, the DA said.
Avila Huicab and Cardona had been engaged in an ongoing dispute over payment; Cardona had reportedly done construction work for Avila Huicab and would not return the work tools used until he had received proper payment for the service.
On the night of the crime, Avila Huicab provided the teen accomplice with a semiautomatic pistol, telling him to wait inside a van until the killer was able to lure Cardona out of his house.
When Cardona went up to the vehicle, the teen fired seven rounds.
He was struck five times, including in his chest and neck.
The teenager and Avila Huicab fled the scene. Cardona was pronounced dead at the scene minutes later by police.
In a statement by Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donelly, she claimed that Avila Huicab “orchestrated the murder of Ricardo Cardona, repeatedly threatening to kill the victim over the course of two weeks, even texting Ricardo on the day of his murder to ‘say your goodbyes to everyone.’”
“Ricardo held onto the defendant’s tools to ensure he received pay that he was owed,” she continued. “And he was senselessly murdered for it.”
Avila Huicab’s two-week trial ended with the jury convicting him on the following charges:
- Second-degree murder
- Second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, two counts
He is due back in court for sentencing Tuesday, August 22, and faces a potential maximum of 40 years to life in prison.
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