A member of MS-13 from Huntington Station — who was extradited from North Carolina — was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the kidnapping and brutal assault of a 15-year-old boy.
On the morning of January 6, 2024, the 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, Josue “Shrek” Zepeda Padilla and four other suspected MS-13 members/associates surrounded the victim and took the victim’s money. Zepeda Padilla and the others then punched the victim repeatedly, knocked the victim to the ground, and kicked the victim multiple times.
After the assault, Zepeda Padilla and his MS-13 associates forced the victim into a vehicle and drove the victim to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood. Once there, the assailants placed a hood over the victim’s head and brought him into an abandoned building. Inside the building, Zepeda Padilla and the other MS-13 members/associates, beat the victim repeatedly, struck him with a rock, and stabbed him in the neck. Zepeda Padilla and the other assailants then fled the abandoned building and left the victim unconscious on the ground.
Miraculously, the victim lived through the assault. He regained consciousness, found a way out of the building and walked to a nearby road where he collapsed. A short time later, he 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.
Following the assault, Zepeda Padilla fled Suffolk County and was on the run for over a year. He was arrested in Winston-Salem, North Carolina by the United States Marshals and the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Forces.
Zepeda Padilla was one of seven members and associates of the Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha or “HCLS” clique of the MS-13 street gang that was convicted in connection with the attack.
On July 3, 2025, Zepeda Padilla pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice Anthony S. Senft, Jr. to one count of Gang Assault in the First Degree, one count of Assault in the First Degree, one count of Robbery in the First Degree and one count of Kidnapping in the Second Degree, all Class B violent felonies.
Zepeda Padilla’s co-defendant, Yeison “Yerba” Chavez, was sentenced to 52 years in prison followed by five years of post-release after a jury convicted him in July. Co-defendant Brayan “Gucci” Jimenez Avila previously pled guilty to Gang Assault in the First Degree and was sentenced to 10 years in jail followed by five years of post-release supervision.
The remaining co-defendants, 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 September 25, 2025, Zepeda Padilla was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by five years post-release supervision.
“This coordinated attack nearly cost a child his life. This defendant and his associates showed no mercy when they brutally assaulted, kidnapped, and left a 15-year-old unconscious in an abandoned building,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “Today’s sentence ensures this defendant will spend the next two decades in prison. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners whose tireless work made this prosecution possible.”