Melvi “Letal” Amador Ríos, a 32-year-old gang member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) criminal organization, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison in a hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court (NYC).
Amador had been found guilty in August of several violent crimes, including ordering the 2017 stabbing of Julio “Bad Boy” Vásquez, a 16-year-old teenager killed because he refused to kill for the MS-13 gang.
Bertha Palaguachi, Vásquez’s mother, told gang member Amador that he should “rot in jail,” shortly before federal Judge Rachel Kovner sent the Queens gang leader to prison for life, reported DailyNews.
“It causes me a lot of pain and I cannot accept the fact that I have lost my son in such a brutal death.”
“It causes me great pain and I cannot accept the fact that I lost my son in such a brutal death,” Palaguachi said, in a statement read by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Karamigios. “They didn’t kill an animal. They killed my son and I want justice. I hope they stay and rot in jail.”
Amador Ríos did not make any statement before the judge handed down the sentence. “The defendant will deservedly serve a life sentence for the murder, attempted murder and armed robberies he committed on behalf of MS-13,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “Today’s sentence reflects justice for the heinous and senseless nature of the defendant’s crimes and the terror he inflicted on his victims, their families and the community.”
After a two-week trial in Brooklyn Federal Court, a jury in the summer found Amador Ríos guilty of 17 of the 18 charges he faced.
Prosecutors accused the 32-year-old Hispanic of leading the “Centrales Locos Salvatruchas” (CLS) clique, which operated primarily from Jamaica, Queens. In that role he led a “checkup” group of teenagers, sending them on killing missions so they could advance within the gang, the feds argued.
His brother Santos Amador Ríos and four other cooperating witnesses testified against him during the trial, linking him to the murder of Vásquez in May 2017, and the previous near-fatal shooting of Luis Serrano (16) in October 2016.
Santos, a 33-year-old Honduran and also a former member of the CLS branch, said at his brother’s trial that he wanted to change his life and “leave all the bad things behind.” “It’s not that I want to do what I’m doing now, but I can’t rot in jail. He knows it and I know that I love him very much, but there is nothing I can do,” he stated in his testimony at the end of July.
While already in prison, in September 2019 Amador Ríos, Josué Leiva and Luis Rivas pleaded “not guilty” for the death of Vásquez.
Vásquez’s brutal murder happened in 2017 in Alley Pond Park in Queens. The other victim, Luis Serrano, was shot in the face and paralyzed. Amador Ríos also planned four armed robberies at Queens businesses, prosecutors alleged.
Assistant Prosecutor Raffaela Belizaire said every murder committed by the MS-13 “clique” in Queens went through the order of Amador Ríos, who as leader was responsible for enforcing the gang’s rules, which included killing rivals and members. “traitors” whenever possible, and never talk to the police.
Murray Singer, defense attorney for Melvi Amador Ríos, launched an unusual argument to the jury in the trial that began on July 24. He admitted that the defendant is a member of the gang, but said that would not be enough to convict him. “It is not a crime to be affiliated with MS-13… Being a member of MS-13 is not a crime,” he said.
Long Island and Queens are two of the areas with the greatest presence of Mara Salvatrucha in the US, where dozens of murders and disappearances are attributed to it. The group of Central American origin is associated with recruiting young men and women, mostly of Latin origin.