Yeison Chavez Campos, MS-13 member who attacked 15-year-old boy, sentenced to 52 years in prison

An MS-13 member who took part in a nearly fatal attack on a 15-year-old who was stabbed in the neck and bludgeoned in the head with a brick was sentenced on Wednesday to 52 years in prison.

Yeison Chavez Campos, 23, of Huntington Station, was the last of seven MS-13 members and associates convicted of the Jan. 6, 2024, attack at the abandoned Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood.

He was convicted by a Suffolk jury in July on six assault felonies, one kidnapping charge and two robbery charges. He had faced a potential sentence of up to 80 years.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Wednesday he thought the 52-year sentence handed down by acting Supreme Court Justice Anthony Senft was "proper."

"I think the evidence in this case speaks for itself," Tierney told reporters after the sentencing at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead.

"We’re talking about the MS-13 and how they deal with perceived disrespect, disrespect that no sane people would agree with their characterization of. But they dealt with that perceived disrespect as they deal with everything, with extreme violence, extreme violence directed at a 15-year-old child."

Chavez Campos was also sentenced to 5 years of post-release supervision following his time in prison.

Pierre Bazile, a court-appointed attorney for Chavez Campos, said he planned to appeal the case.

He argued that his client’s sentence was far more severe than other gang members who took plea deals and were sentenced to anywhere from 12 to 20 years.

Senft criticized Chavez Campos for claiming he did not know the other defendants, even though they were captured on video attacking the boy at a train station.

He referred to comments Chavez Campos made "celebrating" the crime and saying his enemies' blood was especially "sweet."

"There is nothing sweet about this crime," Senft said.

The gang members had lured the boy to the Huntington train station, where they robbed and beat him, Tierney said. They then forced him into a car and drove him to the abandoned site.

After severely beating and stabbing him inside a building, they left him, believing he was dead. But when they later returned with shovels and plastic bags to bury him, he was gone, Tierney said.

The boy had woken up after the attack and walked to a nearby road where he collapsed. A good Samaritan found him and called 911.

"His skull was crushed. He was left to die," Tierney said Wednesday. "And it was only by the grace of God that he had the fortitude to not only regain consciousness but get out, because they were coming back to finish the job."

The teenager was taken to a hospital where he had surgery for injuries including brain bleeding and a fractured skull.

On Wednesday, the teenager was in the courtroom with a relative to observe the sentencing. He and the relative declined to comment. Tierney said later the boy was making good progress in his recovery.

Chavez Campos faced 25 years "on each of the top counts, which are eligible to be run consecutively to each other," the district attorney‘s office previously said.

Six other gang members and associates also were convicted in the attack. They were part of the "Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha" branch of MS-13, according to Tierney's office.

Chavez Campos, who is from El Salvador, faces deportation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "has lodged a detainer to take custody and deport Chavez Campos after he serves his sentence," Tierney's office said in a statement.

Chavez Campos "has not renounced his membership to this violent transnational gang," Tierney told reporters. "Obviously, this individual is still a homeboy and a member, unfortunately, in good standing of the MS-13."