DA: 20 to life for landscaper in Hempstead park slaying

A Mineola landscaper convicted of second-degree murder in the beating death of a 31-year-old man found bleeding and unconscious in a Hempstead park was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life, prosecutors said.

Marvin Yanez, 43, had faced a potential sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the slaying of Luis Rustrian Estrada of Hempstead.

A jury in Nassau County Court in Mineola convicted Yanez in September after a two-week trial before Judge Helene Gugerty.

“Thanks to good detective work and our prosecutors this case was solved and the family of Mr. Estrada now has some justice,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement.

Prosecutor Ania Pulaski told jurors during the trial that Yanez had threatened to kill the victim just hours before he did it.

She said the two men had a fistfight in an earlier confrontation where Yanez also hit Estrada with a hammer. During that dispute, Pulaski said, two brothers of the victim heard Yanez threaten Estrada’s life.

Defense attorney Jacob Weinstein of Manhattan had argued there was no evidence to show his client was guilty, including no DNA or fingerprints, and said Yanez wasn’t in the park that night. He also told jurors his client retreated from the fistfight and police never found the weapon used in the killing.

The Oct. 18, 2016, attack in Brierley Park left Estrada with skull fractures and a brain bleed following the argument with Yanez at about 7:30 p.m. in a neighborhood close to the park, the prosecution said.

One of the victim’s brothers called 911 from the park shortly before midnight after friends woke the brother from a drunken slumber and told him something was wrong with Estrada, who was on the ground nearby.

Video footage was among evidence in the case, including some from the dispute involving the fistfight and some that the prosecution said showed Yanez entering and leaving the park that night.

Weinstein had countered during the trial that the nighttime video didn’t show the face of the person in question.