MS-13 leader pleads guilty in teen's killing, Nassau DA says
David Sosa-Guevara of Wyandanch on Jan. 11, 2018. Credit: Newsday
The leader of MS-13's so-called Hollywood Clique on Long Island has pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy charges and is expected to be sentenced to 24 years to life in prison in January, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said.
David Sosa-Guevara, 28, of Wyandanch, also known as "Risky," pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and second-degree conspiracy before Judge Patricia Harrington. The defendant had "personally ordered" the killing of 15-year-old Angel Soler while conspiring to kill a second person, Singas said.
Singas said that as head of the Hollywood Clique, Sosa-Guevara "directed its members to collaborate" with the so-called Sailors Clique on Long Island, ordering the murder of Soler.
Soler, of Roosevelt, was killed on July 21, 2017, according to the district attorney's office. His mutilated body — bearing injuries "consistent with the use of a machete" — was discovered on Oct. 19, 2017, under cement, burned and with blunt force trauma to the head, in a remote wooded area of Roosevelt just off the Southern State Parkway. Singas said that additionally, Sosa-Guevara, "acting in concert with others," planned the murder of an alleged MS-13 member believed to have been disloyal — ordering the transport of weapons to Maryland "for the purposes of that murder."
Sosa-Guevara admitted in court that he reported to gang leadership in El Salvador and the United States and said the criminal activities of the Hollywood and Sailors cliques included murder, assault, drug trafficking, money transfers, member punishments and rival gang retributions.
Sosa-Guevara was arrested by Nassau police Homicide Squad detectives in Annapolis, Maryland, on Nov. 9, 2017, following an intensive investigation that involved police in Nassau and Suffolk, the Office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor in New York City, federal law enforcement agencies and others from Maryland, Virginia and Texas.
"This defendant sanctioned numerous acts of violence and reported back to MS-13 leadership in El Salvador," Singas said in a statement Tuesday, adding: "With this plea we've ensured that one of the most dangerous defendants we've seen in Nassau County will be held accountable for his reprehensible behavior."
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
