Jayden Abadi Alvarado Velasquez, of Hicksville, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for sex assault, pattern of violence

A Hicksville man was sentenced in Nassau County Court Wednesday to 25 years to life in prison for raping and threatening to kill his former girlfriend, then bury her in an abandoned building at the defunct Pilgrim State Psychiatric facility.

A jury convicted Jayden Abadi Alvarado Velasquez, 40, in May of predatory sexual assault, second-degree attempted assault, three counts of illegal weapons possession, aggravated harassment and other charges.

Nassau County prosecutor Amber Kempermann said he first met his victim Aug. 23, 2023, at a deli and offered to buy her a drink.

The next day, he showed up at her doorstep, uninvited, and forced his way into her home and her life, the assistant district attorney said in court on Wednesday.

“He treated her like she was his property,” Kempermann said. “He told her it wasn’t about what she wanted; it was about what he wanted.”

Over the next four months, Velasquez tried to control every aspect of the woman’s life, the prosecutor said. He bragged about his alleged MS-13 gang affiliation and threatened her with a gun and forced her to have sex with him, officials said.

After months of abuse and control, Velasquez ordered the woman to pick him up in her car, authorities said. He smashed her face, and then they drove to an abandoned building in the old Brentwood psychiatric hospital, which is riddled with gang graffiti, Kempermann said. He told her that he would meet with his fellow gang members in the building, where they would plot murders and then bury their victims on the grounds, prosecutors said. He told the victim that he would bury her and her daughter in one of the same buildings, the prosecutor said.

As soon as they returned to his home, he showed her two guns on his bed and then forced her to have sex with him again, according to Kempermann.

The next day, Velasquez texted the victim photos of the two guns, the prosecutor said, prompting her to finally go to the police, who arrested him on Oct. 29, 2023.

In recordings taken from jail telephone calls, he claimed it was the victim who was the gang member, setting him up, and he was the one who had been abused, Kempermann said.

Velasquez’s lawyer, Robert Schalk, countered the district attorney’s statement, saying no gang affiliation had ever been proven in court and the evidence of his client blaming the victim had never been presented at trial.

“Has my client ever been arrested for gang activity in Nassau County? No,” the attorney said. “This is not a gang trial. This is a boyfriend and girlfriend trial.”

Shalk said the evidence presented at trial showed the couple was in a consensual relationship and that he took her and her daughter out for activities.

“He maintained his innocence. He has a right to appeal," Shalk said. "It wasn’t as open-and-shut as the people would have you believe. There were issues here. The verdict, I believe, was inconsistent with the facts.”

State Supreme Court Justice Robert McDonald said he did not base his sentence on any information that was not presented at trial.

“The defendant took the victim to the abandoned psychiatric facility, saying that that’s where the victim and her daughter would end up after he killed them,” the judge said. “I have no idea if the defendant is a gang member, but I believe he told the victim he was every day. I believe that he was threatening her; I believe he was threatening her on a daily basis. This was a relationship based on control. When she was doing what he wanted her to, all was well with the world. When she wasn’t doing what she wanted, the results were horrific.”

Velasquez stared at the victim, who had been in the back of the room weeping during the proceeding, as he left the court in handcuffs.

His attorney said he would "immediately file an appeal as there are a myriad of issues that we believe warrant this case being reviewed."