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Orange County resident and former cop Nicholas Tartaglione of Otisville, age 56, was sentenced on Monday, June 10 to four consecutive life sentences for the killings in the town of Chester in Orange County following a botched cocaine deal in April 2016 at the Likquid Lounge.
The four victims were:
- Martin Luna, age 41,
- Urbano Santiago, age 32,
- Miguel Luna, age 25,
- Hector Gutierrez, age 43.
Tartaglione, a former police officer in Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, Mount Vernon, and Yonkers, and in Pawling in Dutchess County, orchestrated the kidnapping and murders of all four victims, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said on Monday.
According to federal officials, on April 11, 2016, Tartaglione killed Luna because he believed he had stolen around $250,000 meant for the purchase of cocaine.
Before killing him, he tortured him by restraining him and beating him for more than an hour to try and get him to admit the location of the missing money.
When he did not give the money's location, Tartaglione then strangled Luna to death with a zip-tie.
He then brought the three other victims to his remote Otisville property, where he killed them each with a single gunshot to the back of the head, execution style, simply because they had seen Luna's murder and had been "in the wrong place at the wrong time," officials said.
Tartaglione later buried all four victims in a mass grave on his Otisville property. Their bodies were later found by the FBI's Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force months later in December 2016.
According to federal officials, Santiago was Luna's nephew by marriage, while Miguel Luna was Luna's nephew. Gutierrez was a close family friend of the three.
"All four victims left behind a loving family, and many of their family members attended the trial in this case," officials said in a statement on Monday.
Tartaglione was convicted of the murders in April 2023 and found guilty of 11 counts of murder, four counts of kidnapping resulting in death, one count of kidnapping conspiracy, and one count of narcotics conspiracy.
During his sentencing, US District Judge Kenneth Karas called Tartaglione a "monster" who showed no remorse for his actions.
US Attorney Damian Williams also condemned Tartaglione's crimes, calling them "reprehensible."
"Today’s sentence of four consecutive life terms justly reflects the pain and suffering each victim underwent at Tartaglione’s hands. I hope that this outcome brings some measure of closure to the victims’ families and to their community," Williams said.
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