An admitted MS-13 street gang member from Freeport was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in federal prison for killing two other gang members in a two-week span five years ago.
Melvin Marquez-Sanchez pleaded guilty to murder and racketeering charges last year at Central Islip federal court for the Aug. 25, 2012 murder of Douglas Martinez in Brentwood, the Sept. 8, 2012 murder of Jose Vallejo in Hempstead as well as a conspiracy to kill a rival gang member in Maryland in early 2013.
“This defendant killed two young men here on Long Island, before fleeing to Maryland, where he sought to continue the murderous agenda of the MS-13,” said Bridget Rohde, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said the 22-year-old, who is not a citizen, shot Martinez multiple times at point-blank range with a .38 caliber revolver, killing him. The gang targeted the victim, a fellow MS-13 gang member, for not committing violence against rival gang members, not sending enough money to gang leaders in El Salvador and because he was suspected of being an informant, authorities said. Marquez-Sanchez is one of seven MS-13 members charged in connection with the Martinez murder.
Two weeks after that slaying, Marquez-Sanchez and several other MS-13 members killed Vallejo, a suspected rival gang member who was selling drugs in Kennedy Park in Hempstead, which the MS-13 considered to be its turf, according to investigators. The gang lured the victim to the park under the guise of buying marijuana from him when Marquez-Sanchez shot Vallejo multiple times with the same .38 caliber revolver and another MS-13 member attacked Vallejo with a machete, slashing his throat and face, prosecutors said. Four other MS-13 members were also charged in the Vallejo murder.
After committing those two murders, Marquez-Sanchez fled to Maryland, where he and other members of MS-13 conspired to kill a suspected member of the rival 18th Street gang, authorities said. Marquez-Sanchez and others set out to kill their target, but were unable to locate him. His co-conspirators eventually did murder that victim after Marquez-Sanchez was arrested on March 12, 2013.
