An alleged MS-13 gang member was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for the 2016 slaying of an 18-year-old whose mutilated body was found at a Little League complex in Greenlawn.
Anthony Gutierrez Meza, 25, avoided the possibility of life in prison when he accepted a plea deal in May moments before his murder trial began.
He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter in the killing of Esteven Abrego Gomez, 18, of Greenlawn.
In exchange for the guilty plea, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Timothy Mazzei sentenced Meza, formerly of Valley Stream, to 22 years in prison.
Meza did not comment on his sentence in Riverhead.
But Abrego Gómez’s stepfather read a scathing statement in court.
“It’s very painful to think that there are human beings like you,” Juan Salazar said in Spanish. “It took six years and 325 days of being face to face with you to be able to say that you are the biggest monster I have ever seen in my life.”
Meza was indicted in March 2019 for the murder and had faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder at trial.
A native of El Salvador, he could be deported after serving his sentence, Mazzei previously informed him.
Bart Jones has covered religion, immigration and breaking news for Newsday since 2000. A former foreign correspondent for The Associated Press in Venezuela, he is the author of “HUGO! The story of Hugo Chávez from the mud hut to the perpetual revolution.
