Police link gun to two gang murder cases

A handgun uncovered by Suffolk County detectives in Bay Shore in 2008 has taken on a central role in two savage gang-related murder cases.

The .357 Magnum Colt Trooper, previously identified as the murder weapon in a 2007 triple-homicide in a Newark schoolyard, has now surfaced as well in a federal trial of two Long Island members of the MS-13 street gang charged with a drive-by shooting in Queens.

Weapons sharing, police experts say, has emerged as a typical pattern among local affiliates, or "cliques," of street gangs like MS-13.

"In the old days criminals would have their own guns," said Insp. James Burke, commander of the Suffolk Police organized crime bureau. "What we see now is a trend wherein the gun is not only used locally by the clique, but these guns often cross state lines and are used by gang members in other states."

In the federal racketeering case currently on trial in federal court in Brooklyn, Julio Chavez, 25, of Huntington, and Oscar "Taz" Fuentes, 30, of Huntington Station, are charged with killing Maurice Parker, 21, of Queens, on May 18, 2007.

Prosecutors have charged that the defendants went searching for a victim to raise their status in MS-13, and witnesses said the killing was part of a hit-for-tat arrangement in which the Huntington crew would kill members of the rival Bloods in Flushing in return for a Flushing crew killing rival Latin Kings in Huntington.

Parker was shot in front of a Flushing bodega standing next to a man wearing a red sweatshirt -- the Bloods' colors. Prosecutors say he was an innocent bystander with no gang affiliation.

A government informant testified last week that after shooting Parker, Chavez said, in a reference to the devil taking a soul, that "the beast has eaten." The defense disputes the testimony. Summations in the case are scheduled this morning.

The murder weapon, according to testimony from Suffolk Det. Tom Hess, was seized on March 24, 2008, in a raid of the Bay Shore residence of Alvaro "Loba" Delgado on 271 Delaware Ave. -- along with a sawed-off shotgun, ammunition, and what Hess described as MS-13 drawings.

Hess was a member of a special firearms suppression team working under Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota as part of a state-funded weapons interdiction program known as Operation Impact.

After the Colt's seizure in 2008, Spota said it had been used in three brutal slayings at Newark's Mt. Vernon School on August 4, 2007. That was less than three months after its alleged use in the Parker killing.

The gun and a machete were used to kill two boys and a girl -- Dashon Harvey, 20; Terrance Aeriel, 18; and Iofemi Hightower, 20 -- and wound Harvey's sister, Natasha, 19, according to charges in New Jersey. All were either current or prospective students at Delaware State University who had come to the schoolyard to listen to music on a summer night.

Police charged six gang members in the killings, alleging they were seeking to gain status in MS-13 with the killings. One defendant pleaded guilty, another was convicted in 2010, and a third is currently on trial in state court in New Jersey.

When the gun was seized, Suffolk County police said Delgado, who was sentenced to prison on weapons charges in 2009, had bragged to prospective buyers that it had "10 bodies on it." But officials said it hasn't yet been linked to any more than four.