Alleged MS-13 gang member pleads not guilty in connection with 2017 killing

A fifth alleged MS-13 gang member was arraigned Wednesday on charges that he and at least four others killed a former gang member in 2017 who law enforcement sources said had become an informant.

Jose Quintanilla Cruz, 24, of Hempstead, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges through a Spanish-language interpreter before Justice William O’Brien in state Supreme Court in Nassau. He was remanded to jail without bail. 

Prosecutors have a large amount of information to be turned over to Quintanilla Cruz's  Mineola defense attorney, Cheryl Bartow, that includes a “phone dump” which allegedly implicates Quintanilla Cruz and others, Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt said in court. 

“We maintain his innocence,” Bartow said. “He has the presumption of innocence at this point.”

Rosenblatt mentioned a sixth defendant in the case, “John Doe 3,” but a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment further. 

Quintanilla Cruz is due back in court on Dec. 11. 

His appearance follows the arraignments of Edar Ventura, 21, of Hempstead; Carlos Benitez-Hernandez, 21, of Uniondale; William Reyes-Fuentes, 23, of Uniondale; and Nerlin Chacon-Ruano, 20, of Hempstead, earlier this week. They all pleaded not guilty in separate arraignments.

All five are each charged with one count of second-degree murder and were remanded to jail without bail. 

A grand jury indicted them on Nov. 16 in the death of Carlos Rivas-Majano, 22, of Uniondale. Law enforcement sources have said Rivas-Majano was targeted for death because he was an informant for authorities.

Rivas-Majano was “viciously and barbarically” attacked with a machete in the woods south of Glenn Curtiss Boulevard near Kellenberg Memorial High School in East Meadow by at least five MS-13 gang members in August 2017, authorities have said. He was lured to the woods, where his remains were found a year later. 

His death is likely related to “the gang’s displeasure with his actions within the group or something that they felt was disrespectful to them or a threat to them,” Nassau Police Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, head of the homicide unit, previously said.

Quintanilla Cruz was arrested in  Rivas-Majano's slaying in September and he was arraigned then in First District Court in Hempstead. He was arraigned again Wednesday following the grand jury's indictment. 

Police said after his arrest that he is from El Salvador and is a member of a locally based MS-13 clique called "Downtown Criminals." He had been in federal custody for about a year regarding his immigration status.

Fitzpatrick said in September that Quintanilla Cruz had been previously arrested for criminal possession of a knife in 2015 but he did not know the disposition of the case. Nassau police did not immediately have additional information Wednesday regarding Fitzpatrick's previous statement.

Bartow said Wednesday she had no indication of a 2015 arrest involving her client.

The four other defendants are charged separately with other crimes, including two murders and an attempted murder. Those cases are ongoing.