Jhonny Contreras, member of MS-13 gang, sentenced to 35 years for 3 killings

An MS-13 gang member was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for taking part in the murders of three Long Island men, two of whom were targeted in 2013 under the mistaken belief that the color of their clothing or tattoos indicated rival gang membership.

Jhonny Contreras, 29, of Brentwood, who has since publicly renounced the violent street gang, stood and faced the families of victims Derrick Mayes and Keenan Russell Tuesday and asked for forgiveness. Both men were on their way home late at night when they were shot and killed on the same weekend by members of Contreras’ Brentwood clique, officials said.

“I hope you can find it in your heart to one day forgive me,” Contreras said as several Mayes family members stood up and left the courtroom. “I know today might not be that day, but I pray … I am truly sorry.”

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Brown called the decade-old case “extraordinarily difficult and painful.” He credited Contreras for taking the unusual step of facing his victims’ families and speaking directly to them during his guilty plea and sentencing, and for cutting ties with MS-13 while in jail, something that has left him open to violent retaliation behind bars.

“But that doesn’t get you off the hook,” the judge told Contreras, whose attorneys had sought a 25-year sentence.

Brown said the 35-year sentence “is the best I can do.”

“These were horrendous crimes,” he said.

Contreras pleaded guilty in federal district court in Central Islip in May 2022 to taking part in the three killings from 2013 to 2015. 

Prosecutors had said Contreras and his co-conspirators drove around Central Islip in a stolen minivan on May 26, 2013, looking for rival gang members. During the drive, Contreras and his accomplices spotted Mayes, who they didn't know and wrongfully assumed was a member of the Bloods gang because he was wearing red.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Scotti said Mayes and Russell _ who was killed under similar circumstances two nights later _were “innocent and unarmed.”

“It’s been 10 years since these families were destroyed,” Scotti said of the Mayes and Russell families, about a dozen of whom attended Tuesday’s sentencing, sitting across from members of the Contreras family. “[Contreras’] remorse pales in comparison to the damage that he’s done.”

Prosecutors had sought a 40-year sentence for Contreras, who was indicted in July 2016 along with three-other MS-13 members accused in a wide range of crimes against suspected members of rival gangs.

Scotti said it was too painful for Davonte Mayes, Derrick’s younger brother, to speak at the sentencing, so he read remarks on his behalf, explaining the paternal role his brother played for his siblings.

“He was the best father figure and brother I could have ever asked for,” Scotti said on Davonte’s behalf.

Raymond Smith, Russell’s brother, spoke of the tears shed by his parents and how his bitter feelings toward Contreras have not changed.

“You’re a coward,” he shouted at the defendant.

Contreras also admitted during his change of plea hearing last year to taking part in the Nov. 19, 2015, murder of Cesar Rivera-Vasquez in Babylon. Rivera-Vasquez was suspected by the Contreras crew of being part of a rival gang known as Raza Loca and was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed to death in an isolated area near a baseball field in Babylon, prosecutors said. His body was discovered in April 2018, after Contreras had already been indicted in the prior killings.

Defense attorney Andrew Patel of Manhattan said Contreras left MS-13 after returning to Christianity in April 2021.

“There’s two ways to get out of MS-13,” Patel said. “One way is to die and the other is to find God.”

MS-13 has been tied to more than 60 killings on Long Island in the last two decades, prosecutors have said.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.