QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 30, 2023 Page 22
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MS-13 gang leader gets life in prison
Melvi ‘Lethal’ Amador-Rios ordered the death of two teenagers: USAO by Naeisha Rose Associate Editor
A gang leader who ordered the murder of two teenagers, resulting in the death of one and the paralysis of the other, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Melvi “Letal” Amador-Rios, 32, of Briarwood, also known as “Pinky,” was also found guilty on various racketeering, armed robbery, firearm and Hobbs Act charges after a three-week federal trial by jury on Aug. 9. He will serve consecutive sentences for his crimes ranging from 40 to 80 years, according to the United States Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. In October 2016, Amador-Rios, the head of the Centrales Locos Salvatruchas clique, a Jamaica branch of MS-13, plotted the death of two 16-year-olds, because he suspected one was the member of the rival 18th Street gang and that a chequeo, or low-level affiliate (known as John Doe 3), in CLS was associating with people from the competing group, prosecutors said. Julio Vasquez, 16, another CLS chequeo who was believed by Amador-Rios to have also been violating the clique’s rules by supposedly cooperating with law enforcement in a separate case, was selected to kill John Doe 3, but his failure to do so led to his death.
Josue Leiva and Luis Rivas, two CLS members, lured Vasquez to a wooded area of Alley Pond Park and stabbed him more than 30 times on May 16, 2017, according to authorities. Vasquez’s body was described as looking nearly decapitated and was discovered by a birdwatcher, according to court documents Leiva and Rivas pleaded guilty to robbery, racketeering and to the teen’s murder on July 14, according to a USAO spokesman. In 2016, Amador-Rios believed a second 16-year-old of being in the rival 18th Street gang and ordered three chequeos to kill him. On Oct. 22, 2016, the trio received advice from CLS members Yan Carlos Ramirez and Antonio Salvador on how to kill their target at the latter’s home. On the early morning of Oct. 23, the chequeos went to beat up the teen and one of them shot him in the head with a gun provided by Santos Amador-Rios, the brother of the clique leader. As the 16-year-old lay on the ground, there was an attempt to shoot him a second time, but the gun malfunctioned. The young man is now a paraplegic, according to court filings. While the three defendants were imprisoned, the gang leader called them and said,
Melvi ‘Letal’ Amador-Rios is in prison for ordering the death of two teenagers at Alley PHOTO COURTESY USAO Pond Park. “you guys already have the pass, you know, to be homeboys” indicating they will get to rise up within the CLS’s ranks, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In February 2019, Ramirez pleaded guilty to assault in aid of racketeering and discharging a firearm in connection with the
paralyzed victim. The three chequeos have each pleaded guilty to federal crimes for their participation in the assault and attempted murder of the victim, including assault in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Salvador pleaded guilty in August 2022 to assault in aid of racketeering. It was not disclosed what the clique leader’s brother pleaded guilty to, but the USAO spokesman said he testified against Amador-Rios at the trial. “The defendant will deservedly serve a life sentence for the murder, attempted murder and armed robberies he committed on behalf of MS-13,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “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.” Amador-Rios will thankfully never have the opportunity to victimize another New Yorker, said NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban in a statement. “We vow to remain relentless in identifying, arresting, and holding to full account everyone responsible for driving crime and Q disorder in our city,” Caban said.
BK man gets four years in prison Hodges, 1973 Christopher Williams sentenced for stealing widow’s home by Naeisha Rose
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Associate Editor
A Brooklyn man is set to spend two to four years in prison for declaring a widow dead and stealing the deed to her family home. After the victim inherited the property from her deceased father, a retired police officer, the defendant sold it for nearly $300,000 during the height of the pandemic, according to the office of District Attorney Melinda Katz. The victim, Barbara Matthews, said in August 2021 she received a notification from the city Department of Finance, which stated that a new deed, mortgage and other documents had been filed to the agency for the Jamaica property. The victim and her sister were bequeathed the home upon their dad’s death in 2011. After buying out her sister’s share of the house in 2013, she started coming up with ideas on how to renovate it, but Covid-19 put a damper on those plans, authorities said. An investigation into the case revealed that Christopher Williams, 43, of East Williamsburg submitted a birth certificate to claim he was her son and a death certificate to declare her dead on July 9, 2017 to represent himself as the sole owner of the property. Despite misspelling her last name, the deed was transferred to him and he was
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able to get a $360,000 mortgage against the property, which he sold for $270,000 on Aug. 6, 2021, according to a criminal complaint. Willia m s received a check for $214,536.64 for the property and was able to receive $209,665.69 from a check-cash-
ing establish ment in the Bronx, said prosecutors. The defendant was charged nearly a year later with criminal possession of stolen property, forgery, criminal possession of forged instruments, grand larceny, falsifying business records, identity theft, scheme to fraud and offering a false instrument for filing on June 10, 2022, according to court documents. The Brownsville man was initially facing up to 15 years in prison, but pleaded guilty to identity theft and offering a false instrument for filing in August. Katz’s Office also filed a motion that applied state statute Criminal Procedure Law 420.45, which argued for the immediate restoration of the deed to Matthews. Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng approved the action. “We will not allow criminals to scheme and scam their way into other people’s properties and we will use every tool available to ensure that victims are made whole,” Katz said in a statement. “In communities targeted by deed fraudsters, many people do not have the means to hire an attorney to file a civil suit and litigate against deep-pocketed mortgage companies, banks and title insurers. Our use of this new tactic allows us to provide victims Q with one-stop justice.”
Met, dies at 74 Ron Hodges, who spent his entire 12-year big league career as a backup catcher for the New York Mets, died on Nov. 24 after what published reports state was a brief illness. The member of the 1973 “You Gotta Believe!” National League championship team was 74. Hodges, a Virginia native and resident, was drafted and signed by the Mets in 1972. No relation to the Mets Hall of Fame former Manager Gil Hodges, he would reach the majors the following season straight from DoubleA ball when two-time all-star Jerry Grote and veteran backup Duffy Dyer got hurt. He caught a Tom Seaver win in his big league debut in a year when the Mets were unlikely pennant winners. They were in last place on July 26, and took their division with 82 wins before stunning the Cincinnati Reds in the playoffs. They lost to the Oakland Athletics, who the following year became a three-peat dynasty, in seven games in the World Series. Hodges walked in his only plate appearance. In his career he batted .240 with 19 home runs and 147 runs batted Q in. — Michael Gannon
