Feds: Alleged MS-13 gang member pleads guilty in Babylon killing
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Breon Peace. Credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern
An alleged MS-13 gang member pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges in connection with the 2015 Babylon killing of a suspected rival gang member and an attempted murder of another perceived rival in Bay Shore, federal prosecutors said.
Reynaldo Lopez-Alvarado, 30, of Brentwood, who prosecutors said is a member of the Brentwood Locos Salvatruchas clique of MS-13, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven I. Locke to racketeering charges in connection with his participation in the Nov. 19, 2015, murder of Cesar Rivera-Vasquez, an April 9, 2013, attempted murder in Bay Shore, and conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
“In a twisted desire to enhance his status within the MS-13 gang and without any regard for human life, the defendant admittedly participated in extremely violent crimes, including murder and a shooting,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “Lopez-Alvarado faces very serious consequences for his senseless actions which I hope will be of some relief to the community, including the family and friends of his victims."
Lopez-Alvarado's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Lopez-Alvarado was a new member of the gang in 2013 and "went out looking to kill a rival gang member in order for Lopez-Alvarado to gain full status in the gang," according to prosecutors, who said he and another MS-13 member opened fire on a group of men they assumed to be rival Bloods gang members on Benton Place in Bay Shore. One person was struck, but survived.
About a month later, according to prosecutors, Lopez-Alvarado helped fellow MS-13 gang members who had just shot and killed victim Kennan Russell at a house party in Central Islip on May 28, 2013, by helping them get gas and hide the guns used in the Russell murder. The minivan had also been used two days earlier in the May 26, 2013, murder of Derrick Mayes, prosecutors said.
Lopez-Alvarado and other MS-13 members later cleaned the minivan to remove any fingerprints and then drove it to a wooded area in Ronkonkoma, where they doused it with gasoline and set it on fire, prosecutors said.
In 2015, Lopez-Alvarado and other gang members suspected Rivera-Vasquez was a member of the rival Mexican gang, Raza Loca, according to prosecutors, and lured him to a nearby baseball field to smoke marijuana after seeing him at a deli near the Babylon Long Island Rail Road train station.
Lopez-Alvarado and the other MS-13 members, armed with knives and a baseball bat, began attacking Rivera-Vasquez after he took off his shirt at their direction and revealed a tattoo they believed represented his membership in the rival gang, prosecutors said.
Lopez-Alvarado and the other gang members stabbed him repeatedly and beat him with the bat, prosecutors said. Another gang member slit the victim's throat, prosecutors said, and the group buried Rivera-Vasquez’s body, which was found in April 2018, near a large mound of dirt.
Lopez-Alvarado faces up to life in prison at sentencing.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
