18th Street gang leader sentenced in killing of Hempstead's Joshua Guzman

A third gang leader behind the 2016 fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Hempstead boy will spend decades in prison, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, weeks after the other two were also handed lengthy sentences.

Jose Douglass Castellano, 27, of Brooklyn, like co-defendants Junior Zelaya Canales and Walter Fernando Alfaro Pineda, an 18th Street gang leader, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall to more than 35 years in prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District.

Alfaro Pineda, 46, of Houston, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on March 16, according to the U.S. attorney’s release.

Zelaya Canales, 29, of Jamaica, Queens, received the same sentence as Alfaro Pineda on Feb. 20, the release said.

The three gang leaders have all now been sentenced under a superseding indictment "in connection with a sprawling racketeering conspiracy" that included the September 2016 murder of Joshua Guzman, 15, of Hempstead, said United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella in the release.

All three men, whom Nocella identified as "high-ranking members" of the 18th Street gang, previously pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, according to court documents.

Zelaya Canales ordered a pair of "lower-level" gang members to kill Guzman "in part" because the organization perceived the teen as "disrespectful," Newsday previously reported. Guzman was shot in the back of the head, his body found on a street corner in his hometown.

Donald Duboulay, the defense attorney for Zelaya Canales, declined to comment on his client’s sentencing when reached by phone Tuesday.

The defense attorneys for Alfaro Pineda and Castellano did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.

The 18th Street gang, an international criminal enterprise whose members engage in homicide, drug and firearms trafficking and assault, is spread throughout New York State, including on Long Island and Queens, as well as other areas across the country, including Houston, Newsday has reported.

"The defendants were high-ranking members of an international criminal organization fueled by violence and fear that left a wake of sorrow and destruction in its path," Nocella said Tuesday in a statement. He added that it is his "sincere hope that the justice meted out provides a measure of comfort and closure for the victims of these senseless crimes."