Fifth arrest made in 2016 gang killing of teen in Uniondale woods
Jeustin David Maldonado leaves Nassau Police headquarters in Mineola on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday
A fifth arrest has been made in the MS-13 gang's 2016 killing of a teenager who was lured to a wooded area in Uniondale, stabbed with a machete, shot with a gun and buried there, according to Nassau authorities.
Jeustin David Maldonado, 22, of Nassau Road, Uniondale, was a lookout and is charged with second-degree murder in the June 1, 2016, death of Osmin Campos-Sandoval, 19, of Hempstead, according to court papers.
Maldonado, 16 at the time of the crime, was arrested at Tuesday morning.
District Court Judge Lisa M. Petrocelli ordered him jailed without bail at his arraignment, according to online court records, which say the case is back in court Feb. 1.
Messages left with his court-appointed lawyer, Chris Devane of Mineola, were not returned.
Last year, the police department said that Campos-Sandoval had been lured to the ambush by his ex-girlfriend because he was a member of the rival 18th Street gang. The couple had dated in their native El Salvador, but her relationship in the United States was with an MS-13 member.
Just before the killing, she and MS-13 members allegedly smoked marijuana with him to put him at ease, then "they butchered him, hit him and buried him," Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, head of the Nassau police homicide squad, said last year.
The four others, all arrested last year in connection with Campos-Sandoval’s killing, are, according to court papers: in February, Sandra Tobar Mejia, the ex-girlfriend, now 23, and Christian Rodriguez, now 24, who shot and stabbed the victim; in April, Gerson Stanley Juarez, now 25, who also helped lure the defendant; and in November, Raul Ponce, now 23, who's accused of providing the gun.
Campos-Sandoval's remains were found in October 2020 following a tip to authorities, after police used a dog that led officers to a wooded area, inside a restricted part of a Hempstead Town public water facility, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at the time.
He said Campos-Sandoval's had been one of 16 remains discovered throughout Nassau in recent years connected with the crimes of MS-13, a gang with roots in El Salvador.
He was part of a group of people who had gone missing about five years prior. About six of the 16 were found in shallow graves, Ryder said.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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