By Raul Castillo
Mar 27, 2024, 17:40 PM EDT
Yanki Misael Cruz-Mateo, a member of the Barrio 18 gang, pleaded guilty this Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to extort in connection with his participation in two murders in New York, which occurred in 2017 and 2018. When sentenced, the gang member faces imprisonment life.
Cruz-Mateo participated in the October 2017 murder of Jonathan Figueroa, a 20-year-old man, in Saugerties, New York; and in the February 2, 2018 murder of Oscar Antonio Blanco Hernández, 20, in Queens.
According to statements made Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, Cruz-Mateo was a member of the Queens-based Shatto Park Locos Sureños de Barrio 18 gang.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the guilty plea, according to a statement from the state Department of Justice.
“Cruz-Mateo had bragged about his involvement in the murders in a gruesome video and in text messages, but today’s admission in federal court in Brooklyn holds him accountable for two savage murders committed with the purpose of instilling fear and promoting gang violence.” said U.S. Attorney Peace.
He added: “While the defendant’s guilty plea cannot restore the two lives that were senselessly taken or undo the cruelty of his actions, I am hopeful that it will bring some closure to the families of his victims.”
About the murders
The first murder occurred on October 24, 2017, to Jonathan Figueroa. According to police records, Cruz-Mateo traveled with Figueroa from Queens to Kingston, New York, planning to murder him because members of Barrio 18 suspected him of being a law enforcement informant.
After arriving at the scene and meeting other members of the gang, they stabbed Figueroa to death and buried him in a makeshift grave.
Cruz-Mateo recorded the victim being stabbed more than 100 times and sent the video to other gang members as a warning not to cooperate with authorities, according to official records. Figueroa’s body was discovered in February 2018 by the FBI.
The other murder occurred on February 2, 2018.
Cruz-Mateo shot and killed Blanco Hernández in Queens because members of the 18th Street gang suspected him of being a member of 18th Street’s main rival, La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13 gang.
Blanco Hernandez’s body was discovered on a residential street in the Jamaica Hills section of Queens. He had been shot three times in the torso and head. Cruz-Mateo fled the area and returned upstate to Kingston. He was arrested by the FBI after a statewide manhunt.
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