Gang killing was revenge, prosecutors say
3 Kingston residents among 4 people indicted in October 2017 fatal stabbing
Four men with gang ties, including three from Kingston, have been indicted for murder in the brutal killing last fall of a gang member they suspected of being an informant, federal and county prosecutors said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said the defendants videotaped the killing before burying the victim’s remains in the Turkey Point State Forest, which borders the towns of Ulster and Saugerties.
The four-count indictment handed up Friday by a federal grand jury charges Israel Mendiola Flores, 23, of Kingston, Sergio Gerardo Herrera-Hidalgo, 19, of Kingston, and Yanki Misael Cruz-Mateo, 19, of Jamaica, Queens, with murder conspiracy for the Oct. 25, 2017, killing.
A fourth defendant, Cristian Perez, 20, of Kingston, was indicted for helping Cruz-Mateo evade capture by law enforcement after the killing, and he also faces weapons-related charges, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
A press statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office refers to the defendants as “members and associates” of the 18th Street gang. The statement says 18th Street “is a violent street gang comprised primarily of immigrants from Central America and Mexico with members located throughout Queens, New York, and elsewhere, divided into local chapters.”
The Eastern District federal prosecutor’s office — which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Nassau and Suffolk counties — said the defendants are affiliated with chapters of the gang in Queens and Kingston.
Cruz-Mateo, Herrera and Perez are in federal custody. Flores is being held without bail at the Ulster County Jail. The defendants are to be arraigned on the indictment at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn at a date to be deter-
mined, according to prosecutors.
William Weishaupt, chief investigator for the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, has said the victim, a male whose name has not been made public, was about the same age as the defendants. Weishaupt would not say where the victim lived.
Flores, Herrera-Didalgo and Perez also were charged
Feb. 21 in Ulster County, each with one count each of second-degree murder, for the fatal stabbing, according to accusatory documents filed in Rosendale Town Court, where they initially appeared.
As of Friday, the three had not been indicted in Ulster County.
According to the federal indictment, on the night of Oct. 24, 2017, and into the early hours of Oct. 25, CruzMateo lured a fellow 18th Street gang member, who was suspected of cooperating with law enforcement, to
travel with him by bus from New York City to Kingston. Once they arrived in Kingston, Cruz-Mateo and the suspected informant met with Herrera-Hidalgo, who escorted them to the Turkey Point State Forest.
Cruz-Mateo, HerreraHidalgo and Flores then stabbed the person repeatedly and, after the killing, Cruz-Mateo returned to Queens and sent a video recording of the attack to another individual, federal prosecutors said.
They said the video, which was obtained by the
FBI, shows Flores slashing the victim across his neck and Cruz-Mateo severing his ear.
Authorities say Cruz-Mateo, Flores and Herrera-Hidalgo buried the victim in a makeshift grave in the forest. Then, in February 2018, after boasting in text messages about shooting a rival MS-13 gang member in Queens, Cruz-Mateo fled to Kingston, where Perez sheltered Cruz-Mateo to conceal his location from authorities, according to the press statement.
“What these gang individuals
did to that young, unarmed man is very, very, disturbing,” Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright said in a prepared statement. “My office and the entire law-enforcement community of Ulster County have offered, and will continue to offer, every assistance to Assistant United States Attorneys [Soumya] Dayananda and [Jonathan P.] Lax to assure that these 18th Street gang members are brought to justice.”
In a prepared statement, Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York, said the defendants “committed and concealed a brutal murder against one of their own members because they suspected he had been cooperating with law enforcement.”
Donoghue continued, “Violent street gangs like 18th Street perpetuate bloodshed to maintain allegiance and increase members’ status within the gang.”
If convicted, Cruz-Mateo, Herrera-Hidalgo and Flores each face life in prison, while Perez faces up to 15 years in prison.