A Freeport man was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years to life in prison at Nassau County court in Mineola for the stabbing death of a man in Hempstead who was trying to help his friend from being attacked last year.
Jose Portillo, 21, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Oct. 26. 
The victim, Eber Armando Marin Morales, left a restaurant on Main Street when he tried to assist a friend who was being jumped by a group of five men when Marin Morales was stabbed multiple times by Portillo and died shortly after in September 2008.
Five other men were also pleaded guilty to attempted gang assault in the attack. Josue Gallegos, 22, of Hempstead, was sentenced to time served. Calvin Horton, 25, of Hempstead, and David Sosa, 26, of Roosevelt, are both awaiting sentencing.
Juan Cardona, 20, of Hempstead, who additionally pleaded guilty to assault, was sentenced to two years in prison.
“This was a brutal, cold-blooded attack on an innocent man who was only trying to help his friend,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement.
