Nassau DA: Alleged MS-13 member Carlos Guerra pleads guilty for role in 2 killings

An alleged MS-13 gang member set to go on trial Monday instead pleaded guilty to lesser charges in connection with his role in two killings, including one behind a Nassau community center where the 17-year-old victim was shot multiple times and sliced in the neck with a machete, authorities said.

Carlos Guerra, 22, of Far Rockaway, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree manslaughter and two counts of second-degree conspiracy before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Tammy S. Robbins as part of a plea deal reached with prosecutors during jury selection, Nassau prosecutors said.

Guerra is expected to be sentenced to a total of 28 years in prison on March 7. He could have faced up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.

“I was prepared to go to trial,” said Guerra’s attorney Jeffrey Groder, of Mineola. “He decided it was best for him to take responsibility given the punishment that could have been imposed on him if he were convicted at trial.”

Prosecutors have said a 13-year-old girl lured the victims to their separate deaths, where other alleged gang members were hiding, after contacting them through texts and social media.

Six defendants – members of the MS-13 Normandie clique – have been charged in the attacks, which allegedly took place because the victims had been perceived to have disrespected MS-13. The defendants, who were working to establish a new branch of the gang’s Normandy clique in the Five Towns and Far Rockaway areas, allegedly carried out the killings to increase their standings in the gang, prosecutors have said.

“Carlos Guerra and his co-defendants murdered two young men – within three days of each other – to move up the ranks of MS-13,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said in a statement. “The victims in this case made the mistake of allegedly disrespecting MS-13 and were marked for death."

Co-defendants Yonathan Sanchez and Elmer Gutierrez, both alleged MS-13 gang members, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of conspiracy. Sanchez was sentenced to 34 years to life in prison in July 2020 and Gutierrez was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in August 2021.

A defendant who was 15 at the time of the incidents also pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and is expected to be sentenced to 8-1/2 years to life in prison. The cases against two juveniles, a male and the then-13-year-old, are also pending.

Victim Ian Cruz, 23, of Far Rockaway, was lured to Bayswater Point State Park with the promise of drugs and sex on Dec. 15, 2018, according to prosecutors, after photographs of Cruz allegedly disrespecting MS-13 were circulated among the defendants. But after being met by the 13-year-old girl, Sanchez emerged from bushes and shot Cruz in the head four times with a 22 caliber revolver, prosecutors said. Sanchez, Guerra and the 15-year old, armed with knives, took Cruz’s belongings and fled to Guerra and Sanchez’s Nameoke Street apartment, prosecutors said.

Two days later, victim Harold Sermeno, 17, of Far Rockaway, was lured to the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence by the 13-year-old girl, after he allegedly disrespected MS-13 in a phone call. The pair began to smoke and drink at a picnic table when the five other defendants, armed with a gun and knives, hid nearby. Sanchez then emerged and shot Sermeno four times in the head and once in the chest with a .22 revolver and Gutierrez sliced the victim’s neck with a machete, prosecutors said.

Police recovered the 22 caliber revolver that was used in both murders and the machete that was used in the murder of Sermeno at the Nameoke Street apartment, prosecutors said, along with another machete, eight knives and 13 cellphones.  

Sanchez, Guerra, Gutierrez and two juveniles were arrested on December 19, 2018, in Far Rockaway by members of the NYPD. The sixth defendant, a juvenile, was arrested on December 28, 2018, by members of the NYPD and NCPD.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.