A 23-year-old man was sentenced to 52 years in prison for gang assault and kidnapping.
On January 6, 2024, a 15-year-old victim was lured to the Huntington Train Station by a group of MS-13 members and associates. While at the train station, Yeison “Yerba” Chavez Campos and four other MS-13 members/associates surrounded the victim and took the victim’s money. Chavez Campos and the others then punched the victim repeatedly, knocked the victim to the ground, and kicked the victim multiple times.
After the assault, Chavez Campos and his MS-13 associates forced the victim into a vehicle and drove the victim to the Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center in Brentwood. Once there, the assailants brought him into an abandoned building. Inside the building, Chavez Campos and the other MS-13 members/associates beat the victim repeatedly, struck him with a brick in the back of the head, and stabbed him in the neck. Chavez Campos and the other assailants then fled the abandoned building and left the victim
unconscious on the ground inside the abandoned building. Hours later, Chavez Campos and his co-defendants returned to the building with garbage bags and shovels, prepared to bury the victim but could not find him.
The victim, who lived through the assault, gained consciousness and found a way out of the building. He then walked to a nearby road where he collapsed and was found by a good samaritan who called 911.
The victim was brought to a local hospital, and required surgery, including a craniotomy, to treat a brain bleed and fractured skull. He ultimately survived his injuries.
On July 18, 2025, Chavez Campos was convicted after a jury trial before Supreme Court Justice Anthony S. Senft, Jr. for one count of Gang Assault in the First Degree, one count of Assault in the First Degree, one count of Kidnapping in the Second Degree, one count of Attempted Assault in the First Degree, one count of Gang Assault in the Second Degree, two counts of Robbery in the Second Degree, Class C violent felonies and two counts of Assault in the Second Degree.
Chavez Campos’s co-defendants Josue “Shrek” Zepeda Padilla, Brayan “Gucci” Jimenez Avila, Maycoll “Pirata” Ramirez Cerrato, Marcos “Jero” Serpos, Maybelline Garcia Cornejo and Henry Lemus Nieto previously pleaded guilty to the charges contained in the indictment and are awaiting sentencing.
On August 20, Chavez Campos was sentenced to 52 years in prison followed by 5 years of post-release supervision.
“This brutal attack should not have happened. This defendant and his MS-13 co-conspirators are on notice that they cannot engage in wanton acts of violence in or communities,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney. “We will continue to work with our county and federal law enforcement partners to ensure that members of trans-national violent street gangs who seek to harm our residents are incarcerated and held responsible for their actions.”