MS-13 Gang Members Get 12 Years In Prison After Machete Attack Guilty Pleas, DA Says

MINEOLA, NY — Two men with ties to MS-13 were sentenced to a dozen years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to their roles in knife, machete and pipe-wielding attacks that took place in 2024, prosecutors said.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said that 19-year-olds Pedro Martinez Velasquez and Kelvin Martinez had been sentenced to 12 years in prison apiece after pleading guilty to charges of second-degree conspiracy, second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault in connection with the attacks.

Subscribe

Velasquez's attorney, Christopher Graziano, told Patch Thursday that his client had acknowledged his responsibility in the incidents and was remorseful for what happened. Martinez's attorney, Joseph LoPiccolo, declined to comment.

The first of those attacks, Donnelly’s office said, took place in October of 2024, on an afternoon when Velasquez, Martinez and multiple co-conspirators hopped a fence at Kennedy Memorial park in Hempstead to attack six people with knives and a machete. According to the prosecutors, Martinez and Velasquez punched, kicked, stabbed and struck those six people — aged between 20 and 51 years-old — with Martinez stabbing one of them in the chest. Velasquez, prosecutors said, hit one of the other people in the forearm with the machete.

One of the six people attacked had to have his gallbladder removed and repairs made to his diaphragm and liver, while another suffered a deep laceration to his forearm and two others had stab wounds in their torsos, prosecutors said.

After the attack, Martinez and Velasquez got into a getaway car and drove off, prosecutors said. A search warrant of the getaway car, prosecutors said, would reveal the presence of an eagle-shaped knife with the letters “MS” carved into it.

In a statement Thursday, Donnelly said the sentencing was part of a years-long push to keep MS-13 out of Nassau County.

“My office has worked for years to eradicate MS-13 violence from our communities, taking out top leadership and putting gang members behind bars. Today, two more members of the Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas will join them in prison for participating in a series of brutal knife and machete attacks in public spaces that seriously injured eight people,” Donnelly said. “We will never allow MS-13 to take hold of our communities. Working with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to stamp out this vicious gang and protect Nassau County residents.”

The attacks didn’t end after the October 2024 incident, however, as prosecutors said Martinez and Velasquez were involved in a second incident in December of 2024, wherein they attacked a pair of people with pipes and a machete while they were parked outside a Uniondale Laundromat.

In that incident, prosecutors said Martinez was captured on surveillance footage kicking someone in the chest while he tried to run, and holding him while another gang-affiliated assailant hit him with a machete multiple times. During the incident, prosecutors said, the attackers identified themselves as MS-13 members and said they would kill the two men they were attacking.

Of the two men attacked, prosecutors said, one suffered a deep laceration to his left forearm and multiple cuts on his back, while the other suffered a laceration on his forehead and cuts to his body after being struck with a pipe.

Martinez and Velasquez entered their guilty pleas in February, and will be subject to five years of post-release supervision upon finishing their time in jail, prosecutors said.