MS-13 Leader From Hempstead Sentenced To 17 Years Jail Time For Pair Of Brutal Machete Attacks: DA

HEMPSTEAD, NY — A local MS-13 gang leader is set to serve 17 years behind bars after he was sentenced in court Tuesday, prosecutors announced.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said 22-year-old Elias Serrano Bonilla — Leader of the "Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas (HLS) MS-13 gang" — had pleaded guilty in July to charges stemming from a pair of 2024 attacks, one at a soccer field in Hempstead and the other at a Uniondale laundromat.

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The first of those attacks, the DA's office said, took place Oct. 20, 2024, with Bonilla and multiple associates bringing knives and a machete into Kennedy Memorial Park, kicking and punching a group of six people, aged between 20 and 51 years-old.

One of the attackers, Pedro Martinez Velasquez, took out a machete and struck one of the victims in the arm, while another one of Bonilla's associates, Kelvin Martinez, pulled a knife and stabbed one of the victims in the chest, prosecutors said.

Among those six attack victims, one suffered a stab wound to his shoulder, another sustained a stab wound to his rib cage — requiring a gallbladder removal and organ repair — and a third suffered a "deep laceration" from the machete strike, prosecutors said.

The trio fled the scene of the incident in a car driven by an associate of theirs, prosecutors said.

In a search of the car, prosecutors said police found a knife with an eagle-shaped handle and the letters "MS" carved into it.

In the second incident, on Dec. 18, 2024, prosecutors said Bonilla, Velasquez and Martinez jumped two people at a laundromat in Uniondale with pipes and a machete. Bonilla jumped out of a car and punched one of the people, while Martinez kicked another person in the chest as he tried to run away, prosecutors said. Martinez then held that person in place while another attacker hit him with a machete, prosecutors said.

The machete-struck man suffered a deep laceration to his left arm and multiple cuts to his back, prosecutors said. Another victim in that attack, who had been struck with a pipe, suffered a "deep laceration" to his left forehead and multiple body cuts, prosecutors said.

Bonilla was arrested Aug. 8, 2025 at his East Meadow home and pleaded guilty in July to one count of second-degree attempted murder, one count of second-degree conspiracy and one count of second-degree assault, prosecutors said. He will be under post-release supervision for five years after he serves his time, prosecutors said. Martinez and Velasquez were sentenced to 12 years in prison in April.

"One of my top priorities is weeding out MS-13 gang members and their violence from Nassau County, and this sentence represents another significant step in that direction," Donnelly said. "Elias Bonilla was the catalyst for several brazen public attacks by the Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas, which left almost a dozen of our residents seriously injured. He and MS-13 tried to intimidate others through fear and force, but my office's message is clear: gang violence in our communities is unacceptable, and we put such criminals in front of judges and behind bars."