70°
Brentwood resident Jonathan Hernandez, age 24, a member of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.
Specifically, US Attorney Breon Peace said that Hernandez admitted to his participation in the Jan. 28, 2016 murder of Michael Johnson, the April 29, 2016 murder of Oscar Acosta, and attempted murder on Aug. 10, 2016, as well as a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana.
“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,” Peace said.
“It is our hope that the families of the victims find some consolation that Hernandez has been held to account for his crimes.”
Prosecutors said that on Jan. 28, 2016, Hernandez and other MS-13 members were at the Jocorena Deli in Brentwood, when they spotted Johnson, a purported member of the rival Bloods street gang.
“At that point, Johnson was marked as their ‘food,’” Peace said, “meaning that they were going to kill him.”
Johnson was later lured into a secluded area near Second Avenue in Brentwood, where he was struck with a baseball bat, stabbed with a knife, and then MS-13 members took turns hacking the body - which was found in February that year by members of the Suffolk County Police Department - with a machete.
According to prosecutors, Acosta, who was 19 years old at the time, was believed to be associated with the rival 18th Street gang when he was lured to a wooded area near a Brentwood elementary school under the guise of smoking marijuana.
Peace said that Acosta was beaten with tree limbs until he was unconscious by members of MS-13. They then bound his hands and feet, gagged him, and brought him to a separate secluded area near a psychiatric hospital.
Acosta - who was still alive at the time - was then carried into the woods and hacked with a machete by Hernandez and other MS-13 members before he was buried in a shallow grave.
Prosecutors said that on Aug. 10, 2016, Hernandez and another member of MS-13 fired multiple gunshots at rival gang members on Lukens Avenue in Brentwood.
No one was struck, but a stray bullet entered a neighboring home and struck the headboard of a bed 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 stated. “I thank those involved in this case for their tireless efforts to hold this individual accountable for his heinous actions.”
Hernandez also pleaded guilty to participating in a drug distribution conspiracy between April 2016 and October 2017 to further the exploits of MS-13.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Brentwood and receive free news updates.
