Hempstead holdup suspect, alleged Tren de Aragua member, pleads guilty

A Washington Heights man, who prosecutors allege was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, pleaded guilty Monday to his role in the 2024 robbery and shooting of a woman in Hempstead.

Frederick Morillo Chavez, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree robbery and one count of attempted assault in connection with the holdup just after midnight on May 22, 2024, when he snatched the woman's purse and an accomplice shot her in the arm after she resisted, prosecutors said.

As part of the guilty plea, Chavez is expected to be sentenced on March 16 to 8 years in prison and 5 years of post-release supervision.

His guilty plea follows the guilty plea last year of another man, Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 21, of East Elmhurst, who the authorities said shot the woman during the robbery. Prosecutors alleged that Castro Mata also was a member of Tren de Aragua. He pleaded guilty in a separate case to shooting and wounding two NYPD officers in Queens, less than two weeks after the Hempstead robbery.

The Hempstead woman was walking home from a bus stop near a parking lot on Front Street when Chavez and Castro Mata came up behind her on a moped and robbed her at gunpoint, prosecutors said.

"This was a senseless, violent attack on a woman returning home from work. When she fought for her own safety, Bernardo Raul Castro Mata tried to silence her with a gunshot. Thankfully, she survived this terrifying encounter," Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Castro Mata pointed the gun at the woman and, after a struggle, made off with her purse with AirPods, a phone charger and a debit card. He took the purse to Chavez, who was waiting on the moped, and went back to steal the woman’s lunch bag and shot her in the arm when she resisted, prosecutors said. Both men then drove off on the moped.

Chavez was arrested and charged in May 2025.

Nearly two weeks after the robbery, Castro Mata, who was reported homeless by Queens prosecutors, was arrested following a confrontation with NYPD officers in Queens during a traffic stop while he was riding a moped.

Queens prosecutors said Castro Mata shot one officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest in the chest and another officer in the leg. Both officers survived, and Castro Mata was shot in the foot.

Castro Mata was charged in the Hempstead robbery on June 10, 2025, the same day he was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the police shooting in Queens. He pleaded guilty to the Nassau charges of attempted murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, and was sentenced in October to 15 years in prison.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.