MS-13 Kingpin Melvi Amador-Rios Receives Life Sentence for Murder of Queens Teen
November 29, 2023The mother of a teenage MS-13 victim told the gangbanger “rot in jail” after the judge sentenced the Queens gang leader to life in prison for ordering her son’s grisly murder. Melvi “Letal” Amador-Rios, 32, received the life sentence at a Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday. Amador-Rios was found guilty in August of several violent crimes, including ordering the brutal stabbing of 16-year-old Julio “Bad Boy” Vasquez in 2017.
Julio Vasquez, 16, was killed in Alley Pond Park in Queens on May 16, 2017, because he refused to kill a fellow MS-13 member. “It brings me so much pain, and I can’t accept the fact that I lost my son to such a brutal death,” Vasquez’s mother, Bertha Palaguachi, said in a statement. “They didn’t kill an animal. They killed my son and I want justice. I hope they stay and rot in jail.”. Brooklyn Federal Court District Judge Rachel Kovner handed down the sentence on Tuesday. Amador-Rios, 32, ruled over the gang’s Centrales Locos Salvatruchas clique and ordered Vasquez’s murder. Vasquez was lured to Alley Pond Park and stabbed 34 times. Vasquez was a low-level member with the MS-13 clique and was on the outs after losing one of the gang’s guns. That made the others think he might be cooperating with police, so Amador-Rios gave a mission to prove his loyalty: Kill his friend, Tiburon, and earn a promotion. Luis Serrano, also 16, was shot in the face and paralyzed. Serrano sat quietly in his wheelchair during Amados-Rios’ sentencing. “When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me how I wasn’t going to be able to move. I started to cry,” Karamigios read from his statement. Amador-Rios used his influence to recruit “vulnerable young teenagers” to commit brutal violence. Amador-Rios was found guilty after a two-week trial where several members of MS-13 turned on him and testified, including his own brother. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Tuesday.“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.”