An illegal immigrant has been the final member of MS-13 caught and convicted of kidnapping, asault and robbery of a 15-year-old he left for dead.
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, 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 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.
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.
On July 18, 2025, Chavez Campos, 23, of Huntington Station, was convicted after a jury trial before Supreme Court Justice Anthony S. Senft, Jr. on the following charges:
- one count of Gang Assault in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony
- one count of Assault in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony
- one count of Kidnapping in the Second Degree, a Class B violent felony
- one count of Attempted Assault in the First Degree, a Class C violent felony
- one count of Gang Assault in the Second Degree, a Class C violent felony
- two counts of Robbery in the Second Degree, Class C violent felonies
- two counts of Assault in the Second Degree, Class D violent felonies
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.
Chavez Campos is due back in court on August 20, 2025, and faces 25 years on each of the top counts, which are eligible to be run consecutively to each other. He is the final one of the seven members and associates of the Huntington Criminal Locates Salvatrucha or “HCLS” clique of the MS-13 street gang convicted of the attack.
The United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has lodged a detainer to take custody and deport Chaves Campos after he serves his sentence.
“MS-13 has no place in Suffolk County,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “The actions of this defendant and his MS-13 co-defendants on a 15-year-old boy will not be tolerated. I commend my office and our law enforcement partners for bringing this defendant and all of his associates to justice.”