Gang indictment: 9 'Lowndes Block' members charged in Huntington Station violence, including 2 killings

Suffolk County authorities announced the indictment of nine people Thursday, charging them in connection with a series of gang-related crimes in Huntington Station, including the orchestrated killings of two rivals in the past decade.

District Attorney Ray Tierney said the investigation into the Lowndes Block gang, a subset of the Bloods, led to a 53-count indictment detailing 10 shootings, the seizure of 11 illegally owned weapons and sex trafficking that prosecutors said funded gang activities through prostitution.

Prosecutors, Suffolk police, sheriff’s officials, federal authorities and family members of victims attended the indictment's announcement Thursday morning at the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood.

Tierney said the indictment was aimed at dismantling the gang by charging its leaders, who sought to control the Lowndes Avenue corridor, north of the Huntington LIRR station and east of New York Avenue. He said the shootings left two people dead and eight others injured, and included a morning shooting near downtown Huntington in Heckscher Park.

"There wasn't one thing that broke this case, but a number of things, and that allows us not only to charge the shooters in these cases, but we also go after everyone involved in the operation," Tierney said. "That's everyone who ordered the violence. We go after the leaders, anyone who funded the violence, anyone who helped to acquire and distribute the weapons and any of those who helped to cover-up the crimes."

Marques Scott, 31, of Huntington Station, the alleged gang leader, faces murder and conspiracy charges for ordering a 14-year-old recruit to carry out the 2021 killing of Luis Cameron Rimmer-Hernandez, an alleged former associate, according to the indictment.

Kevin Donaghy, 33, faces murder charges in connection with the 2016 killing of an 18-year-old Huntington Station man, Antoine Butts-Miller. Tierney described Butts-Miller as an innocent bystander who was killed outside a house party in a shooting targeting a rival gang member.

The district attorney’s Cold Case Gang Homicide Unit investigated both cases that led to murder charges in the killings.

Scott's attorney could not be reached for comment. Donaghy's attorney, John Halverson, said he was "looking forward to defending the case at trial," but declined to comment on the charges.

Both men pleaded not guilty during arraignments Tuesday. They were ordered remanded and held without bail. If convicted, they could face 25 years to life in prison, prosecutors said. 

Donaghy and two other people were also charged with conspiracy for helping plan Rimmer-Hernandez’s killing. Days after that killing, prosecutors charged then-14-year-old Ramon Lyons, an alleged Lowndes Block associate, with the shooting, saying he did so to gain acceptance in the gang. Lyons pleaded guilty to murder in 2023, when he was 16, and was sentenced to 12 years to life in prison.

Rimmer-Hernandez's two grandmothers attended the announcement Thursday, saying they never gave up fighting for justice for their grandson. They described him as a star football player who fell into the wrong crowd.

"The police were wonderful. They stuck with this for years," Christine Rimmer said. "These are evil people. They should be taken off the streets because innocent people are killed every day.

"Both families have been affected terribly, and we're moving on. We're moving on. Today was justice," she said.

Tierney said gangs will recruit minors to carry out violence on their behalf since under state law, minors face a maximum sentence of 15 years to life as a juvenile offenders.

"That's insufficient. Gangs know this. So, when gangs are looking to commit outrageous acts of violence, they will recruit younger gang members, because they know that ordinarily, my office cannot reach those individuals," Tierney said. "And this is a theme that we're seeing all too many times in gang cases ... the gangs are more sophisticated than our lawmakers, and they know ... the laws in New York State are lenient when it comes to juveniles."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.