WHITE PLAINS — Former police officer Nicholas Tartaglione was convicted by a federal jury of killing 4 immigrants Thursday as a part of a cocaine trafficking scheme.
Tartaglione was going through life in jail with out parole when U.S. District Choose Kenneth Karras sentenced him. A potential loss of life penalty for homicide has been taken off the desk.
The 12-member jury, after someday of deliberation, discovered Tartaglione responsible of all counts. The fees included conspiracy to visitors medication, a number of murders, and kidnapping to additional the conspiracy.
Closing in entrance of the jury: Tartaglione’s lawyer assaults the proof of the homicide. Prosecutor says responsible verdict is a deadly blow
Biggs testimonial: Particulars of a bodybuilder’s strangulation and deadly taking pictures in Tartaglione’s quadruple homicide trial
Tartaglione was convicted of strangling and taking pictures males on medication
Tartaglione was convicted of killing Martin Luna, his nephew Miguel Luna, his niece’s husband Urbano Santiago, and household pal Hector Gutierrez. All 4 disappeared on April 11, 2016, after luring Luna to the Likquid Lounge, a pub in Chester owned by Tartaglione’s brother, over a drug debt and bringing others with him.
The prosecution alleged that two of Tartaglione’s enforcers, bodybuilder and college safety guard Joseph Biggs of Nanuet and former Haverstraw police officer and strongman competitor Gerard Penderoth, restrained the boys at gunpoint.
Prosecutors informed the jury that Tartaglione then strangled Martin Luna with a zipper tie and his physique and the three different males have been delivered to Tartaglione’s Mount Hope property, the place Biggs, Tartaglione, and Pendroth shot one of many males behind the top. .
“Martin Luna, Miguel Luna, Urbano Santiago, and Hector Gutierrez are beloved fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons,” U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams stated in an announcement.
The murders resulted from Tartaglione’s suspicions that Luna had stolen $200,000 from him as a part of a scheme to purchase cocaine. Tartaglione, a bodybuilder, was promoting steroids illegally.
Tartaglione then devised a scheme to confront Martin at a gathering at a bar in Orange County, Williams stated.
“Unaware that he had been lured right into a lethal entice,” Williams stated, “Martin tragically introduced his two nephews – Miguel and Urbano – and a household pal – Hector – to the assembly.” “What occurred subsequent can solely be described as sheer horror, as Tartaglione tortured Martin, then compelled certainly one of his nephews to look at Tartaglione strangle Martin to loss of life with a necktie.”
“Then Tartaglione and two companions took Miguel, Urbano, and Hector—who have been merely within the fallacious place on the fallacious time—to a distant wooded website, compelled them to their knees, and executed them with gunshots to the again of the top,” Williams stated.
Tartaglione then buried the 4 victims in a mass grave on land he had rented.
“Tarttaglio’s heinous actions signify a broader betrayal, as an ex-police officer as soon as swore to guard the neighborhood he destroyed,” stated Williams. “Most of all, we thank the households of the victims for trusting legislation enforcement to search out their family members and realizing that justice has been served.”
Throughout closing statements on Wednesday, Tartaglione’s legal professional, Bruce Barkett, argued to a federal jury that three authorities collaborators — Biggs, Jason Sullivan and Marcus Cruz — lied on the witness stand and arrange the police’s earlier exhibiting within the killing of 4 immigrants, a defence. criticized by the plaintiffs.
“Witnesses have been shaped,” Barkett stated, including that he had not accused prosecutors and investigators of tampering with Tartaglio. He informed jurors that they may ignore the total testimony of a witness if the jurors felt that lies have been being informed.
Protection case: The ex-cop’s protection says Tartaglione was the “excellent fall man” for the quadruple murders
The loss of life penalty is off the desk: The feds not search the loss of life penalty in opposition to former policeman Nicholas Tartaglione
‘The proof is devastating’: How plaintiffs gained over the jury
Lead prosecutor Maureen Comey informed jurors that the case was open, tight, and supported by robust proof of Tartaglione’s guilt. She stated he was a homicide and cocaine mastermind dealing with his steroid gross sales.
“Three witnesses informed you the way the accused participated within the kidnapping plot and 4 murders,” she stated. “This proof is devastating as a result of it’s the fact – Nicolas Tartaglione is responsible.”
Comey stated the three males weren’t scripted and their preliminary interviews have been recorded. She stated protection attorneys and prosecutors have been current. She stated Tartaglione have to be the luckiest as a result of all of the proof factors to him.
“The defendant thought he might get away with it,” she stated of Tartaglione. “In his opinion, who would miss 4 Mexicans?”
The three cooperating witnesses can profit from their testimony with a lesser sentence for his or her crimes or the time they served when Karas sentenced them. Comey informed the jurors that solely the decide might determine the decision and that the prosecution would write a letter on their behalf in the event that they informed the reality. She stated that this is able to have occurred if Tartaglio had been acquitted.
Tartaglione bought steroids, and ran a canine rescue
Tartaglione labored most of his profession for the Briarcliff Manor Police Division however had shorter stints with the Mount Vernon, Yonkers, and Pawling Police Departments. He had retired on incapacity in 2008 and augmented his $65,000 annual pension by promoting automobiles and steroids and operating an animal rescue.
Prosecutors alleged {that a} drug trafficking plot was hatched in June 2015 on the Tartaglione rental property on Previous Mountain Highway in Mount Hope. Luna was visiting his pal Cruz, a farmer, and introduced alongside his employer, Jason Sullivan, who owned a building firm. Tartaglione started rising marijuana on his property, however Luna prompt he had entry to cocaine.
Luna made preparations to purchase cocaine in Texas and promote it in Florida, the place Sullivan had moved by the tip of the 12 months. In December, the plan goes into impact with Tartaglione Cruz giving $200,000 to offer to Luna as an preliminary funding. On the time, Tartaglione hoped to buy the Mount Hope property.
Throughout his closing arguments to the jury, Assistant US Legal professional Jason Swergold used cellphone and lodge data and testimony from Cruz and Sullivan to element the smuggling plan. Tartaglione’s brother, Michael, strikes the cash to Texas and the medication to Florida as soon as Luna picks them up. In Florida, the cocaine was stored at Sullivan’s house and bought to Santiago one kilogram at a time in late December and early July.
Protection attorneys argued that Sullivan’s monetary issues and his proximity to medication made him a extra doubtless conspiracy chief. Swergold responded that Tartaglione “was on the high of the method. He is not into the weeds; he isn’t doing the day-to-day.”
When all seven kilos have been bought, it was determined that Luna would use the proceeds to get extra cocaine and the journey to Texas was repeated. However he reported on the night time of January 17, 2016, that when he handed over the cash, the particular person chargeable for it had left and was not with the medication.
Swergold stated Tartaglio initially believed Luna’s account, and tried to assist him get the cash again. However when Luna disconnects, Tartaglione sends two enormous enforcers, bodybuilder and college safety guard Biggs and ex-cop and difficult rival Penderoth, to search out him.
They’re unable to find Luna, however Tartaglione ultimately will get Sullivan’s assist luring Luna to a bar. Sullivan informed him there was a roof estimate to be performed there.
Surveillance tapes, testimonies detailing the homicide’s story
When the boys arrive on the tavern, they’re tied up by Biggs and Pendroth, and Tartaglio arrives and Martin confronts Luna as he’s tied up within the toilet. Biggs stated he heard Luna choking and shortly regarded inside to see his physique mendacity on the ground. Tartaglione acquired a chunk of material from his automotive to wrap the physique, he stated, and drove it to the Mount Hope property and he and Pendroth drove the opposite three there.
Swergold led the jurors by means of surveillance video purporting to point out the boys arriving at a bar with Tartaglione showing shortly after. Later, the video confirmed males showing to place a big object in Tartaglione’s automotive as he drove away. It additionally confirmed Penderoth’s automotive driving to the rear of the property to choose up Biggs and the three captives, then leaving the world moments later.
Biggs testified that the three males, nonetheless duct-taped, have been compelled to kneel on the bottom. He stated he shot one of many males after Penderoth threatened him, gave the gun to Tartaglione, and heard two extra photographs when he turned away. The prosecutors assert that each Tartaglio and Penderoth shot the remaining captives as a result of Biggs stated it was Penderoth who picked up the gun when he returned a second later.
Tartaglione and Biggs dug a gap for the our bodies and partially stuffed it, and Cruz helped Tartaglione end filling the opening with dust the subsequent day.
Tartaglione was arrested on December 19, 2016, and the our bodies have been discovered the subsequent day after Cruz led state police investigators and FBI brokers right into a mountainside clearing.
Biggs, Sullivan, and Cruz all pleaded responsible within the case and cooperated with the prosecution, hoping for leniency from a life sentence. Swergold admitted that every of them had performed dangerous issues, a few of them “actually horrible,” however that did not imply they weren’t telling the reality.
If legislation enforcement had framed Tartaglione because the protection claims, Swergold stated, they may have stopped the investigation as soon as he was arrested as a substitute of arresting and charging the others as nicely.
Steve Lieberman covers authorities, breaking information, courts, police and investigations. attain him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @employee.
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