Defendants hacked 22-year-old Carlos Rivas-Majano to death with machete
MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that two MS-13 members have pleaded guilty in the August 2017 machete murder of Carlos Rivas-Majano, whose body was discovered in a wooded area along the Meadowbrook Parkway a year later.
Luis Alejandro Varela a/k/a Felon, 24, of Mineola, and William Reyes-Fuentes a/k/a Desobediente, 27, from Uniondale, pleaded guilty Friday before Judge Teresa Corrigan on charges of Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony) and Conspiracy in the Second Degree (a B felony). Varela is due back in court on August 9, 2022, where he is expected to be sentenced to up to 21 years to life in prison. Reyes-Fuentes is also due back in court on August 9, 2022, where he is expected to be sentenced to up to 20 years to life in prison.
“For more than a year, Carlos Rivas-Majano’s family was left to speculate what had happened to him, until his body was recovered in a sump by the Meadowbrook Parkway,” said DA Donnelly. “The defendants – Luis Alejandro Varela and William Reyes-Fuentes – were part of an MS-13 crew that lured the victim into that wooded area, beat him and killed him. We will continue to work with every law enforcement partner to rid our communities of this dangerous gang.”
DA Donnelly said that on August 11, 2017, Carlos Rivas-Majano told a family member that he was on his way home from a deli in Uniondale and never returned home. Rivas-Majano, a perceived enemy of the gang, was lured into the woods near the Meadowbrook Parkway and Glen Curtiss Boulevard in Uniondale, where he was hacked and stabbed to death with machetes. The victim’s body was recovered in a sump on August 29, 2018. The assailants are members of the Downtown Criminals clique of MS-13.
Cases against co-defendants Carlos Benitez-Hernandez a/k/a Malaspecto, Jose Quintanilla-Cruz a/k/a Destructo and Destructor, and Nerlin Chacon-Ruano a/k/a Callajero, are pending.
Another co-defendant, Edar Ventura, was sentenced to 32 years to life in 2019 after pleading guilty to two counts of murder, and related charges, for the deaths of Rivas-Majano and Alexon Moya.
The case is being prosecuted by Chief Jared Rosenblatt and Senior Litigation Counsel Tracy Keeton of the Homicide Bureau. Varela is represented by William Shanahan, Esq. and Reyes-Fuentes is represented by Steven Barnwell, Esq.
The charges against the other defendants are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.
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