5 indicted on robbery, murder charges

Five alleged members of the MS-13 street gang have been indicted on federal murder, assault and robbery charges, including one in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy outside a house party in Brentwood.

Another alleged member was charged in the execution-style killing in Brentwood of a gang member suspected of working as a government informant.

The 19-count indictment, which was unsealed Monday, includes charges of murder in aid of racketeering, assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, armed robberies, firearm offenses and related conspiracy charges.

According to court documents, Jose Alvarenga, 22, the leader of a clique of the gang called the Brentwood Locos Salvatruchas, ordered gang members to attack suspected rivals at the house party in August 2010 on American Boulevard. They fired into a crowd, killing Christopher Hamilton of Brentwood.

Hector Torres, 20, is accused of luring Rigoberto Gomez into a car in August 2010 to smoke marijuana at the Freeman Avenue Park. As Gomez stepped out of the car, Torres allegedly shot him in the back of the head with a .357 caliber revolver. He shot Gomez again as he fell to the ground, court documents said.

Torres and Alvarenga pleaded not guilty at their arraignments Monday before District Judge Joseph F. Bianco in federal court in Central Islip and are being held without bail. If convicted, they face a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, since these are federal charges.

Torres' lawyer, Raymond L. Colon, said he plans to vigorously defend his client.

"He's a very young man," Colon said. "This is potentially a death penalty case. It's a very serious crime and it's a very, very, profound quest we have here in sparing this man's life."

Alvarenga's lawyer, Terrance Buckley of Commack, did not return calls seeking comment.

The other three -- Freddy Fuentes-Gonzalez, 28, Francisco Ponce, 29, and Joyser Velasquez, 27, all of Brentwood -- will be arraigned later this week. If convicted, they face life in prison.

Hamilton's shooting prompted community members, including his mother, Erica Boynton, to create the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens, a grass-roots organization to combat local gang violence.

Lenny Tucker, president of the group, called the indictments the beginning of the end of gang violence in the community. "I'm ecstatic. I mean it's a beginning to an end. We're closing a chapter. Everybody is getting some closure," Tucker said, adding that the wait over the past two years for Hamilton's killer to be caught was "heart-wrenching."

"The MS-13 thrives on violence -- violence directed at suspected rivals . . . violence against its own members, as demonstrated in the Gomez murder, and violence directed at innocent, hardworking Long Islanders, as demonstrated in the armed robberies charged in this indictment," said Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District on New York.