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Kevin Granados-Coreas, age 23, of Hempstead, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, April 13, to second-degree murder and second-degree conspiracy in the 2017 death of Julio Cesar Espantzay-Gonzales, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
He is expected to be sentenced to 23 years to life in prison on Friday, May 13, Donnelly said.
“Kevin Granados-Coreas worked with Julio Cesar Espantzay-Gonzales and befriended him at a restaurant at the Green Acres Mall. He then convinced the young man to join him in the Massapequa Park Preserve to smoke marijuana and hang out with girls,” Donnelly said. “The defendant marked the victim for death by telling his fellow MS-13 members that Espantzay-Gonzales was their ‘enemy.’
"Once inside the park, the victim was mercilessly hacked to death and his body was dragged to nearby brush.”
Espantzay-Gonzales was reported missing on Jan. 31, 2017, and his body was found at the Massapequa Park Preserve on March 23, 2017, according to the announcement.
Investigators found that Espantzay-Gonzales was lured to the woods on Jan. 28, 2017, by Granados-Coreas and others, and he was hacked to death with machetes by Granados-Coreas, Antonio Cullal, Raul Ponce, and Gerson Stanley Juarez, Donnelly said.
His body was left under tree branches, leaves, and brush, the DA's Office said.
An indictment reports that Carlos Portillo and Roberto Abrego-Reyes allegedly ordered the murder of Espantzay-Gonzales because he was believed to be an enemy of the gang, Donnelly said.
Granados-Coreas was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad on Aug. 15, 2017, Donnelly said.
Cullal was sentenced to 20 years to life and Ponce was sentenced to 32 years to life, the DA's Office said.
Donnelly reported that the cases against Portillo and Abrego-Reyes are currently pending.
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